The man who sued for two "undecillion" dollars

[BillF]

http://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2014/may/19/worlds-largest-lawsuit-suing-city-new-york

[king ubu]

re: that outrageous spilled coffee lawsuit ... when it says "contents hot" and the coffee I get is only warm, can I sue?

[Leeway]

The best take on the whole "hot coffee" thing was on the TV series "Seinfeld," when Kramer spills coffee on himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoINTDFosCY

[ejp626]

re: that outrageous spilled coffee lawsuit ... when it says "contents hot" and the coffee I get is only warm, can I sue?

Some knob from Quebec managed to successfully sue Air Canada for getting a Sprite instead of 7-Up. http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/14/air-canada-ordered-to-pay-12k-to-man-who-couldnt-order-7up-in-french/

Anyway, while the coffee thing always sounds like a joke, it really was scaling hot, much hotter than coffee should ever be served to someone about to drink it. (Indeed 40 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than other restaurants serve it. McDonalds started dropping its temperature across its franchises after this lawsuit to something that could be more safely consumed immediately.) She had third-degree burns over part of her body and it is strongly suggested that she died prematurely because of the burns. So really not all that frivolous. http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

And if you are really interested, an entire documentary about the whole affair: http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/Default.asp

Edited May 19, 2014 by ejp626

[king ubu]

Thanks Eric, wasn't aware of this (the coffee being so much hotter than it usually is being served). But anyway, whenever I get a coffee to go, I take the first sips cautiously anway ... not matter if or if not that was a frivolous lawsuit, that tendency that caution (and indeed in many cases common sense) has to be taken care of by laws instead of letting people do some tiny bit of thinking. But then I guess we've long been directed and pushed into that kind of inability for independet existence ...

[ejp626]

Thanks Eric, wasn't aware of this (the coffee being so much hotter than it usually is being served). But anyway, whenever I get a coffee to go, I take the first sips cautiously anway ... not matter if or if not that was a frivolous lawsuit, that tendency that caution (and indeed in many cases common sense) has to be taken care of by laws instead of letting people do some tiny bit of thinking. But then I guess we've long been directed and pushed into that kind of inability for independet existence ...

I definitely wish we didn't always run to lawyers to resolve our problems, for sure. But then having legislatures keep inventing more and more "rights" will inevitably come to clash -- my right to practice my religion will clash with your right not to be discriminated against. There are a large number of people who basically insist that this is not a zero-sum game, but I see it as one. The more rights that are created, the more inevitable conflicts.

In any case, somehow they managed not to seal the coffee lid properly, and it spilled on this poor woman.

And even taking small sips wouldn't have helped at McDonalds. The execs admitted that they served it at a temperature that would have given 2nd degree burns to the tongue. (I do wonder about places that sell scalding hot drinks. I experienced this will hot chocolate sold at Stanley Park at a ridiculously hot temperature. It really did ruin the moment having to wait nearly 10 minutes before it was cool enough to drink.)