During the trial it was revealed that McDonald’s knew that heating their coffee to this temperature would be dangerous, but they did it anyways because it would save them money. When you serve coffee that is too hot to drink, it will take much longer for a person to drink their coffee, which means that McDonald’s will not have to give out as many free refills of coffee. This policy by the fast food chain is the reason the jury awarded $2.7 million dollars in punitive damages in the McDonald’s hot coffee case. Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant for their inappropriate business practice.

  • Moobythegoldensock
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    1 year ago

    And she only asked McDonalds to cover her medical bills. It was the jury who threw out her request and instead punished McDonalds with the huge settlement, because they were horrified by how grossly negligent the company had been and decided her request wasn’t a strong enough punishment.

    • AEsheron@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      1 year ago

      Don’t forget they had previously been ordered several times to reduce the temperature and refused.