Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 125 views

    Case Brief

    Uploaded by

    Dom
    Stella Liebeck sued McDonald's Restaurants after spilling hot coffee on herself and suffering third-degree burns. She had purchased the coffee from a McDonald's drive-thru and placed the cup between her legs. The legal issue was whether McDonald's was responsible for Liebeck's injuries. While the coffee cup had a warning that it was hot, the court found the warning was too small. The jury determined McDonald's was 80% responsible and awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages, though the damages were later reduced. Both parties appealed the decision but later settled out of court for under $600,000.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content

    You might also like

    Case Brief

    Uploaded by

    Dom
    125 views1 page
    Stella Liebeck sued McDonald's Restaurants after spilling hot coffee on herself and suffering third-degree burns. She had purchased the coffee from a McDonald's drive-thru and placed the cup between her legs. The legal issue was whether McDonald's was responsible for Liebeck's injuries. While the coffee cup had a warning that it was hot, the court found the warning was too small. The jury determined McDonald's was 80% responsible and awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages, though the damages were later reduced. Both parties appealed the decision but later settled out of court for under $600,000.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    Case_brief

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    Stella Liebeck sued McDonald's Restaurants after spilling hot coffee on herself and suffering third-degree burns. She had purchased the coffee from a McDonald's drive-thru and placed the cup between her legs. The legal issue was whether McDonald's was responsible for Liebeck's injuries. While the coffee cup had a warning that it was hot, the court found the warning was too small. The jury determined McDonald's was 80% responsible and awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages, though the damages were later reduced. Both parties appealed the decision but later settled out of court for under $600,000.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    125 views1 page

    Case Brief

    Uploaded by

    Dom
    Stella Liebeck sued McDonald's Restaurants after spilling hot coffee on herself and suffering third-degree burns. She had purchased the coffee from a McDonald's drive-thru and placed the cup between her legs. The legal issue was whether McDonald's was responsible for Liebeck's injuries. While the coffee cup had a warning that it was hot, the court found the warning was too small. The jury determined McDonald's was 80% responsible and awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages, though the damages were later reduced. Both parties appealed the decision but later settled out of court for under $600,000.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    Case brief

    Parties:

    Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants.

    Facts:

    Stella Liebeck, a 79-year old woman from Albuquerque in New Mexico, bought a cup of coffee at
    McDonald’s drive-in restaurant. She opened the cup of coffee and placed between her legs. She
    spilled the cup all over her lower body and she suffered third-degree burns on this part of body.

    Legal issue

    Legal issue is whether McDonalds is responsible for the claimant’s injuries or not.

    Procedural history:

    Stella Liebeck tried to settle out-of-court, but all of these attempts failed. After this, Liebeck sued the
    McDonald’s for gross negligence.

    Reasoning of the court:

    Served coffee was very hot (82-88 °C), this temperature causes third-degree burns in two to seven
    seconds. Very important documents were more than 700 reports of people burned by McDonald's
    coffee.

    The jury decided that Liebeck is responsible for 20% and McDonald’s is responsible for 80%, despite
    the fact that on the cup of coffee was warning sign, that this beverage was hot. According to the
    court, this sign was too small. Liebeck was awarded $200 000 in compensatory damages and $2.7
    million in punitive damages. These damages were later reduced.

    Both parties appealed against this decision. Later, parties decided to settle out-of-court and they
    agreed on damages less than $600 000.

    You might also like