Article View: misc.rural
Article #1934Re: 1973 v 2007 - Obituary of the late Mr. Common Sense
From: Dan Mercer
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:25
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:25
30 lines
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3538 bytes
Some people here need to go to law school or at least learn to discern the difference between truth and a media campaign. After the negative judgement McDonalds responded with a media campaign to shape the argument after the fact (they have been apparently successful). For instance, I haven't seen Stella's age mentioned - she was 79. Or the fact that coffee, served at normal temperatures, is incapable of causing 3rd degree burns with that kind of exposure. Her original claim did not ask for pain and suffering, only hospital expenses from two years of treatment. The two legal issues at stake are "assumption of risk" and "easily foreseeable circumstances". McDonalds deviated from common practice in raising the temperature of the coffee they served to dangerous levels in order to gain a competitive advantage. Reasoning that many people were not going to drink the coffee immediately, they raised the temperature so it would still be hot when eventually drunk. By deviating from common practice, the assumed the burden of that increased risk. Yet they did nothing to alleviate that risk. They didn't warn customers of the increased risk, they didn't provide sturdier cups - they even overfilled the cups, increasing the risk. And they knew of the risk - they had handled more than 700 prior claims. That someone would be seriously burned was an easily foreseeable circumstance. The same law that requires fences around "attractive nuisances" came into play. McDonalds chose to ignore the risks and paid the price. They hjave since spent far more money, no doubt, in spinning their version into urban legend than they actually paid in damages. Dan Mercer
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X-Google-Thread: f514b,600e030bbc6c9149 X-Google-Thread: 1073ca,600e030bbc6c9149 X-Google-Thread: 1149c9,600e030bbc6c9149 X-Google-Thread: f765b,600e030bbc6c9149 X-Google-Attributes: gidf514b,gid1073ca,gid1149c9,gidf765b,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news2.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:26:02 -0600 From: "Dan Mercer" <damercer@comcast.net> Newsgroups: misc.rural,co.general,alt.guns,mn.general References: <Xns98C569085145FSandman@216.196.97.136> <1169990099.145457.107610@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com> <tmins2l81lo0fu6ehhuopim1ji7mr2frme@4ax.com> <45CFC3BF.DAABE86E@bellsouth.net> <1171305281.555648.188870@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com> <Xns98D582B0DB579spoofedatnospamRocki@216.196.97.142> <1171337439.868911.50100@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com> <Xns98D5E93A168D8spoofedatnospamRocki@216.196.97.142> Subject: Re: 1973 v 2007 - Obituary of the late Mr. Common Sense Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:25:59 -0600 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1478 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1478 Message-ID: <UcOdnbNVz9MHe0zYnZ2dnUVZ_umlnZ2d@comcast.com> Lines: 32 NNTP-Posting-Host: 76.17.161.168 X-Trace: sv3-yikpkefBE5a4UjQhP6OEtqa1ioB31shQS1D7/njZZYqiwO0NsTfRQXUQUoxr48Lp6j4InUXdsM/ykPK!nMS+wLfp5VIE92hfHcGlQOCFbgSEBob5Rca4Bs0oQaSkamBGkOCmBDdZ/4yTsuszEF+0WKmRlwxT!b0PKxQtrz8zFmw== X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.32