Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants

"Hot coffee case" redirects here. For similar uses, see Hot Coffee (disambiguation).
Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants
Full case name Stella Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, P.T.S., Inc. and McDonald's International, Inc.
DecidedAugust 18, 1994
Citations1994 Extra LEXIS 23 (Bernalillo County, N.M. Dist. Ct. 1994), 1995 WL 360309 (Bernalillo County, N.M. Dist. Ct. 1994),
Court membership
Judge sittingRobert H. Scott

Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, also known as the McDonald's coffee case and the hot coffee lawsuit, was a highly publicized 1994 product liability lawsuit in the United States against the McDonald's restaurant chain.[1]

The plaintiff, Stella Liebeck (1912–2004),[2] a 79-year-old woman, purchased hot coffee from a McDonald's restaurant, accidentally spilled it in her lap, and suffered third-degree burns in her pelvic region. She was hospitalized for eight days while undergoing skin grafting, followed by two years of medical treatment. Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for $20,000 to cover her medical expenses. When McDonald's refused, Liebeck's attorney filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, accusing McDonald's of gross negligence.

Liebeck's attorneys argued that, at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C), McDonald's coffee was defective, and more likely to cause serious injury than coffee served at any other establishment. The jury found that McDonald's was 80 percent responsible for the incident. They awarded Liebeck a net $160,000[3] in compensatory damages to cover medical expenses, and $2.7 million (equivalent to $5,600,000 in 2023) in punitive damages, the equivalent of two days of McDonald's coffee sales. The trial judge reduced the punitive damages to three times the amount of the compensatory damages, totalling $640,000. The parties settled for a confidential amount before an appeal was decided.[4]

The Liebeck case became a flashpoint in the debate in the United States over tort reform. It was cited by some as an example of frivolous litigation;[5] ABC News called the case "the poster child of excessive lawsuits",[6] while the legal scholar Jonathan Turley argued that the claim was "a meaningful and worthy lawsuit".[7] Ex-attorney Susan Saladoff sees the portrayal in the media as purposeful misrepresentation due to political and corporate influence.[8] In June 2011, HBO premiered Hot Coffee, a documentary that discussed in depth how the Liebeck case has centered in debates on tort reform.[9]

  1. ^ Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, P.T.S., Inc., No. D-202 CV-93-02419, 1995 WL 360309 (Bernalillo County, N.M. Dist. Ct. August 18, 1994), docket entry from nmcourts.com
  2. ^ Simmons, Andy (July 15, 2021). "Remember the Hot Coffee Lawsuit? It Changed the Way McDonald's Heats Coffee Forever". Reader's Digest.
  3. ^ "Liebeck v. McDonald's". www.tortmuseum.org. June 13, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  4. ^ "McDonald's settles lawsuit over burn from coffee". The Wall Street Journal. December 2, 1994. B6.
  5. ^ Greenlee 1997, p. 701.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference ABCNews20070502 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Turley was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Pacchia, Lee (June 28, 2011). "Hot Coffee Filmmaker Says Contributions Produce Biased Judges". YouTube. Bloomberg.
  9. ^ Tucker, Ken (June 27, 2011). "The must-watch TV show of the night: 'Hot Coffee' on HBO". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 28, 2011.