[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Well, they had a lot of evidence in that case about what was/was not a "proper" temperature for hot beverages to be at in order to be considered safe for sale. As I recall, there was even a memo floating around that mentioned how dangerous it might be to sell coffee or other hot beverages at temperatures that were too high.
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But, hey ... it's sort of like Ford and the Pinto. They did a cost benefit analysis and decided that "most" of the gas tanks wouldn't explode, and that it would be much cheaper to fight lawsuits over those that did, rather than have a massive recall or to redesign the product.
[/COLOR] I HAD a pinto. I loved driving it. But glad to get rid of it.
McDonalds had more or less the same cost benefit analysis. It's just that the court disagreed with their logic.

As for the negligence of the lady who spilled her coffee. As I mentioned before ... the court simply decided that a reasonable person would not expect their coffee to be so hot that it would land them in the hospital for a series of surgeries. That's the standard that the courts generally use.

I have no idea if the attorney took the case on a contingency basis or for a fee. I do know that the injured woman had hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical costs to pay, as well as a hell of a lot of reconstructive surgery costs, and rehabitation therapy so that she could walk again.

I have no firm opinion on whether the attorney was sleazy or not. Some litigators I know are ... others not so much. I (and I may be a cheering section of one ...) happened to really admire the litigator who took on the KKK after they murdered one young (black) man, and forced them to give over their headquarters to the mother of the murdered man.

In short ... the court system generally does not set the "reasonability" standard for people in this country at a particularly high level. To me, that speaks more to the lousy education many of our citizens receive. Well, I may as well start another flame with you......as the parent of a second grade teacher, and one who does volunteer work at her school, I can only say.....Those students whose parents expect the best from them, and do not accept excuses about lost homework, mean teachers, 'she didn't tell us!", and who read to their kids and demand that they read, they do great. The others....a teacher can only do so much with the time alotted. If I didn't go in and correct,, listen to some read, she would have even less time. Its not fair or right that she has to take away time from those waiting to learn so that she can go over basics (for the umpteeth time) with a child that has no clue. And heres whats really funny. The parents then blame the teacher. Its disgusting when a child says she didn't do her 15 minutes of reading last night because "we gave our dog a birthday party." True story. Or a child consistently is tardy or absent because the parent doesn't care enough to see they get to school. Or to see a child come to school in slippers because 'mom was asleep when I left.' I guess what I'm trying to get at .....its not always the 'education system' I see a lot of parental neglect out there. And yes, rm, before you ask, I realize that there are horrible teachers also.

Oh .... and completely and totally aside .... today, when I went to visit Mrs. Moon, her family had given her a game called "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader." Now .... the fact that a group of (apparently) otherwise well educated people could find that game challenging is beyond me. Now, I just wish that $1,000,000 I "won" playing the game could be turned into real money.

HAVE YOU NEVER WATCHED THAT SHOW??? Oh my gosh.....I could not answer a lot of the questions. Especially on the math. They just use different terms.....I did okay on the english tho. I loved the show......