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>You must be a lawyer. The reason the jury awarded a huge amount to
>the lady was because McDonald's is a famous company with $billions
>in sales. If the lady had sued Joe's Drive-In for the same thing,
>she would not receive anything.
>Why are we discussing this in a tech writer's list?
>Sabu
>writer -at- sabu
I am not an attorney. McDonald's made it a practice to heat their coffee to
between 180-190 degrees to stretch a few extra cups from the beans. The
coffee you drink at home is about 140-150 degrees. McDonald's had complaints
for years from customers who had been burnt and did nothing to halt the
practice. This was documented in the trial. This wasn't an isolated incident.
The punitive damages in the jury award were to punish the company for the
company policy and past practices and get them to stop this practice (and
apparently it has done that). Twelve citizens listened to the arguments and
found in the plaintiff's favor and gave her the award. Punitive damages are
not decided by attornies, they are decided by the jury. If Joe's Drive-In had
been guilty of similar practice and been sued I believe the results would
have been the same.
