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it's not like the coffee was too hot, she just spilled on herself, then sued b/c she was inconvienienced basicly.

Tsukiyumi wrote:Well, I agree that if the coffee was over a certain temperature, they should have been liable.

How hot does it really need to be? At a certain point, it'll scald your tongue.

From what I recall if the Snopes article, the coffee at that location was being served scalding hot and she was wearing jogging pants. So when her son/son in law hit the brakes to hard it spilled (the lid was on wrong as well IIRC) and got soaked into her pants, causing second burns over her thighs and groin area. The court also knocked down the damages to the hundreds of thousands rather then the millions that is often claimed.

Lt. Staplic wrote:it's not like the coffee was too hot, she just spilled on herself, then sued b/c she was inconvienienced basicly.

The way I remember it, she sued because the coffee burned the hell out of her lap; I doubt even an American court would've awarded her anything for her seat being sticky.

Kendall - beat me to it.

Tsukiyumi wrote:I doubt even an American court

that sounds like a challenge.

Can't find it on Snopes but here's wiki. Has the same facts that I recall.

Lt. Staplic wrote:it's not like the coffee was too hot, she just spilled on herself, then sued b/c she was inconvienienced basicly.

Third degree burns are a lot more than an inconvenience, in fact they carry a high risk of death.

I know, I simply hadn't heard there were any burns.

Lt. Staplic wrote:I know, I simply hadn't heard there were any burns.

It's usually left out of the tale for some bizarre reason.

It was that way when I first heard it, which led to the thought that it was truly pointless since hot coffee is meant to be served hot. Perhaps this was TOO hot, though.

Are there guidelines of any sort about what temperature hot coffee should be served at? I only spilled a hot fluid on myself once as a child at a Chinese take-out place (they were helpful as I recall and my father was with me) but often I find them served a bit too hot to sip comfortably until they've cooled a bit.

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:It was that way when I first heard it, which led to the thought that it was truly pointless since hot coffee is meant to be served hot. Perhaps this was TOO hot, though.

Are there guidelines of any sort about what temperature hot coffee should be served at? I only spilled a hot fluid on myself once as a child at a Chinese take-out place (they were helpful as I recall and my father was with me) but often I find them served a bit too hot to sip comfortably until they've cooled a bit.

I've never worked in a restaurant so I wouldn't know but the article mentions that McDonald s had a policy on how hot is was supposed to be served (82-88 °C), which is pretty hot but when I get a coffee from Tim Horton's I can usually drink it right away. I have spilled it on my shirt a time or two and had to whip it off cause it was to hot to leave.