Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Hooray for Stella Liebeck!

Never accept conservative baloney about the U.S. needing tort reform. The Daily Rotten commemorates Feb. 27, 1992 and the tribulations of (Albuquerque's own) Stella Liebeck!
Trying to get the lid off her McDonald's coffee to add cream and sugar, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck accidentally splashes the 180-degree liquid on herself, causing third-degree burns to the thighs, genitals, and buttocks. After skin graft surgery and weeks of recuperation, Liebeck asks McDonald's to turn down the temperature of their coffee and pay $20,000 to defray her hospital bills. McDonald's tells the old lady to fuck off, as they had done for a decade of similar burn claims. Ultimately, a jury awards Liebeck $2.9 million in the resulting lawsuit, which immediately triggers a renewed call for legislative tort reform.

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