Stella

Whether you know her by name or not, I promise that you have heard of Stella Liebeck. Born in Norwich England in 1912, she has the distinction of having lived through both World Wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the dawn of the internet age.

The reason you know of Stella, however, is due to the events that transpired on February 27, 1992 in a McDonalds drive through. Stella is the woman who famously sued McDonalds because their coffee was too hot.

As soon as the lawsuit became public, Stella was lambasted by national and global media as the grossest example of a frivolous lawsuit the court system had ever seen. She won her lawsuit and was awarded 2.7 million dollars. But her reputation was permanently destroyed because of the media attacks. Still today, 30 years later, her story is still used as the punchline of late-night TV jokes.

I am not going to comment on whether Stella deserved her 2.7 million or not. I am not here to offer my judgement. I am here to say simply, that there is a little more to this story than the media shared.

Looking for some help waking up for the day, she and her son stopped to order some coffee from their local McDonalds. The 1989 Ford Probe they were driving did not have cup holders (the real culprit in this whole saga may very well be awful 1980’s car design…) so her son parked the car while she placed the cup of coffee between her legs to add cream and sugar.

While attempting to pry the lid off her coffee, she pulled both the lid and the cup in towards her lap, dumping the hot coffee all over herself in the process. The coffee quickly absorbed into her cotton sweatpants, which held the hot liquid against her skin scalding her thighs and groin.

The burns were severe enough that she was taken to a hospital where she was treated for third degree burns and underwent skin grafting for 8 days. During the ordeal she lost nearly 20 percent of her bodyweight, suffered permanent disfigurement, and was partially disabled for two years.

Stella’s hospital bill was $10,500. Her future medical needs were estimated at about $2,500, and her daughter lost about $5,000 in wages while taking care of her. In total, the financial fallout of the ordeal was about $18,000. Stella and her attorney asked McDonalds for $20,000 to cover the costs.

McDonalds offered her $800.

After filling suit against McDonalds, Stella and her attorney offered to settle for $90,000. McDonalds refused. An independent mediator suggested a settlement of $225,000. McDonalds refused. The case went to trial.

During the case, several key facts were disclosed.

First, McDonalds gave specific instruction to all franchisees to serve coffee between 180 and 190 degrees. Stella’s attorneys tested coffee from establishments all over the city and found the average temperature to be about 155 degrees. Significantly cooler than the McDonalds Coffee. A liquid at 190 degrees will cause a third-degree burn in less than three seconds. A liquid at 155 degrees would take closer to 30 seconds, giving someone time to remove the soaked clothing and prevent damage.

Second, Mcdonald’s instructed their franchisees to serve hot coffee because they initially believed that most of their customers were commuting to work and wanted to drink the coffee when they got there. However, internal memos suggest that McDonalds was aware through surveying customers that most of them wanted to drink the coffee immediately.

Third, and perhaps most damning, between 1982 and 1992 McDonalds received more than 700 complaints from people burned by their exceedingly hot coffee.

To sum it up, McDonalds was serving coffee far hotter than they needed to. They knew that there was no reason to continue serving it that hot. And they knew that the coffee was harming people, yet they did nothing.

The jury decided in the end that while Stella was 20 percent at fault, McDonalds, for the reasons above, was 80 percent at fault and ordered McDonalds to pay Stella two days’ worth of coffee revenues, or 2.7 million dollars. McDonalds appealed, and eventually the parties settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

The media told a story that made Stella out to be a money grabber who spilled some coffee. Maybe there was a little more to it than that.

You don’t know what you don’t know. It can lead to bad decisions, poor judgement, and tremendous consequences. Learning to seek the other side of the story can help you in your personal relationships, your business dealings, and in your financial life.