In 1992, Stella Liebeck a woman of 79 years resident of Santa Fe in the state of New Mexico had bought coffee at a McDonald Mc Drive. Wanting to add milk and sugar to her coffee, she tried to remove the coffee cup lid, without success since it got stuck. She then began to make handling with both hands and then tucked the cup between her knees. So she pulled the cover that was cut brutally and threw hot coffee on her lap, seat, thighs and crotch. Burned to the second and third degrees, she was hospitalized and underwent multiple skin grafts. She remained immobilized for three weeks and assisted daily by her daughter who had to take unpaid leave.
Liebeck initially approached McDonald’s with a demand of $20,000 to cover her medical bills, future
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The jury also found that Plaintiff was twenty percent at fault. What were the damages awarded? After deliberating four hours, the six man, six woman jury initially awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages, which was reduced by the judge by $40,000 due to the finding of comparative fault. The jury also awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages. What became of the verdict? McDonald’s filed post-trial motions. In late August or early September 1994, Judge Scott appointed retired New Mexico Supreme Court Justice William F. Riordan to mediate the dispute and ordered the parties to “make a good faith effort to resolve and completely settle all pending issues.” (“Conference Ordered on Spilled Coffee,” Associated Press, Tulsa World, September 2, 1994, available at 1994 WLNR 5089128). On September 16, 1994, Judge Scott denied McDonald’s motion for new trial and motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, noting that “the compensatory award of $160,000 shall not be disturbed.” However, in that same order, the court noted as follows: “The award of punitive damages of 2.7 million dollars was excessive, as a matter of law. Accordingly, a new trial shall be granted on all issues unless Plaintiff accepts — by written notice to the Court within 25 days of the date of entry of this Order – a remittitur of the punitive
Primrose claimed about the incident at Wal-Mart Stores, INC., that they were trying to cause any kind of harm to her. Based on the evidence that had been provided to the court have proved that the signs was clear enough to be seen by everyone around the area at that time. Moreover, Wal-Mart did not asking her to go around the display in order for her to transported the watermelon. The Judges thinks that the incident would not happened if Ms.Primrose can move her shopping cart closer so it would be easier for her to transferred the watermelon. Therefore, the Judges are agreed with the trial court’s decision to grant the defendant their motion for summary judgment, after it had been proven that the display was open and obvious to be seen by everyone and there’s no sign of any risk or mean to harm anyone. Also, Ms. Primrose was failed to prove her’s argues that she claimed above to support her liability to La. R.S. 9:2800.6, the Judges cannot impose any enforcement or duty upon the defendant. In conclusion, the three assignments of error cannot be
That day, Mrs. Escola went to her work at Tiny’s Waffle Shop, a restaurant in Merced, California. A waitress, part of her duties consisted of refilling the refrigerators with soft drinks. One of them, a bottle of Coca-Cola, broke in her hand producing a long and deep cut that went from the bottom of her index finger to the pad and web by her thumb, damaging nerves and blood vessels. After the incident, she was unable to resume a full work schedule, and unable to fully resume her waitressing
Two decades have passed since that fateful day when Stella Liebeck’s life was turned upside down in a McDonald’s parking lot. Since then her story has served in as a punch line for late night comedians, the basis for an episode of Sienfield and a lyric in a Toby Keith song. She died in 2004 having never fully recovered from her injuries. Unfortunately for her family her story will probably be misquoted and misunderstood in order to support some rather specious arguments about personal responsibility and other ills of society.
3. The jury reached their verdict at 1 a.m. concluding that the media was guilty of libeling the restaurant and their twenty-two employees.
In 1967, a fire was started in Jay Mountain Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Two young men, Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade, were smoking and accidentally dropped a lit cigarette – but did not catch fire till later that day. With no idea of the future, a group of children and adults had a picnic. Some of the kids wandered off to the church, with no consent of any adult, right before the fire. Thankfully, none injured with the two young men saving their lives. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dally – who was one of their close friend that happened to be with them at the time. Ponyboy had minor injuries, with only a couple of bruises and cuts. Dally broke his arm trying to drag out Johnny and for the most part he was okay.
The case of Dax Cowart is about a 25 years old man, Dax Cowart, who was a severe burn victim. His father was burnt to death in the fire. Cowart suffered severe and disabling burns over most of his body. He loss of both his hands, right eye, and ears, and his left eyelid sewn shut. Also, he was dipped in a chlorinated bath to fight infection and having the bandages covering his body regularly stripped and replaced during the medical treatments.
For my report, I observed the customers at a Starbucks in downtown St. Petersburg. Each time I visited this establishment, there were consistent factors as well as unique ones during each observation. The morning crowd of people was vastly different than the evening crowd. I did however see many parallels with the morning and lunch time crowd. Each time I visited, There seemed to be an upbeat and fast paced environment.
Coffee is a growing part of people’s daily lives. Just before the 9-5 weekdays, and even during the 9-5, it is common for the working class to drink a cup of coffee. To support this accustomed part of our culture, it involves a complex supply chain that allows those coffee beans to turn into a cup that can be consumed. This paper is structured on how Starbucks, the top coffee supplier in the world, can supply its stores, from raw materials to manufacturing, right to the start of someone’s day.
ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a beautifully written short story about a college student named Dina. The story is told in a first person perspective and revolves around her personal struggles at Yale. In Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, Packer uses flashbacks and vivid imagery to show how Dina is not in tune with herself physically or emotionally. This results in her inability to cope with her life in the rich white world of Yale as an African American woman or how to cope with life when traumatic events happen.
Before the jury decides a verdict, the last step in the trial process is the closing arguments. There were no closing arguments because the parties had to settle on nine million dollars. They did this because the plaintiff’s attorneys went bankrupt due to this case and they couldn’t afford to invest any more money into the case. Beatrice Foods ended up being not liable for the deaths of children so they were allowed to leave the case. Due to this, only W.R. Grace had to settle with the plaintiff. Later on in 1988, Jan Schlichtmann brought this case to the EPA’s attention and the EPA decided to bring lawsuits against the companies. W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods ended up having to pay for their huge mistake. They had to pay for the largest chemical cleanup in the Northeastern which cost sixty- four million dollars.
In the DemoracyNow.org video link, it was stated that the McDonald’s lawyers provided a list of seven hundred other customers’ names, who in the past ten years had made complaints against McDonald’s stating their brewed “hot cup of coffee” was too hot. McDonald’s serves over a million cups of coffee worldwide, so the two million and seven hundred thousand dollar jury’s award was the two days’ worth of coffee sales that McDonald’s had to pay for brewing their product “the cup coffee” too
The verdict came in, the jury found for the plaintiff $2 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages. The vote was 9 to 3 in favor of the plaintiff. Nicholas slipped into the night and had a Learjet take him to Marlee.
My research location is one of the most popular coffee shop in the city which is Starbucks that located at California and Sprues street in San Francisco. I am interested in this topics because it controls my attention to keep watch what others are doing and what is going on near me. This topic has a potential sociological significant because coffee shop is one of the most popular places that many people want to go. Starbucks is a famous coffee shop in the United States that has many customers. The, majority of customers were students who carrying bags, holding lap tops and books as well as a big number of Sutter Health Hospital employees who wear their uniforms and looking in their break time. Also there were a group of police officers who
Coffee has always been a controversial subject as far as health goes. Many people look at coffee and think “caffeine.” They define the long and short term effects of coffee on what they know about caffeine, not knowing that there are many other components to coffee that can both positively and negatively impact their health. Coffee can diversely affect many different aspects of people’s general health. It can impact anything from the digestive system and the reception of neurochemicals, to sleep patterns and post-workout soreness.
Whether it’s Folgers, Nescafé, or a latté from the local Starbucks, coffee can always be found nearby. Due to the caffeine content and taste, coffee is a widely chosen beverage for people who need a pick-me-up in the morning or have just added the daily cup into their wake up routine. The average human is normally not that educated in chemical studies with coffee, and most people aren’t aware of many coffee and caffeine related facts.