Woman sues McDonald's after spilling 'scalding hot' coffee at drive-thru

28 September 2023 , 21:34

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An 'improperly secured lid' caused extremely hot coffee to spill all over the lap of an 85-year-old woman (Image: LightRocket via Getty Images)

On a bright summer day, an 85-year-old woman pulled up to a McDonald's drive-through and ordered herself a cup of coffee - becoming one of the 500 million people a day to do so in the US.

But it wasn't the same experience that Mable Childress usually has. As she stood up and grabbed her cup to drink on the go, the lid popped right off, and the extremely hot liquid spilled all over the senior's abdomen, thighs, and groin. The lawsuit said the burns were severe and caused scarring - which she is still dealing with.

Not knowing quite what to do, she returned to the McDonald's restaurant and explained the situation but said she was completely ignored. Workers allegedly refused to file an incident report and made her wait an hour before the manager would approach her.

McDonald's coffee is delicious and piping hot - but is the extreme temperature causing too many injuries? (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In a statement to local outlet SFGate, her lawyer, Dylan Hackett, said, “She’s an elderly lady, and she was waiting for over an hour to speak to a manager, and a manager never spoke to her,” Hackett told SFGate. “They didn’t give her the time of day. … Nobody helped her whatsoever. She had to get to the hospital herself."

Now, Childress is suing the fast-food giant and one of its San Francisco franchises in California Superior Court. McDonald's owner/operator Peter Ou said in a statement that he was reviewing the lawsuit and that his employees have to abide by safety rules.

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"My restaurants have strict food safety protocols in place, including training crew to ensure lids on hot beverages are secure," Ou said. "We take every customer complaint seriously — and when Ms. Childress reported her experience to us later that day, our employees and management team spoke to her within a few minutes and offered assistance."

This is the second time a McDonald's coffee has caused a lawsuit (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Court documents reveal that the coffee cup had not been "properly" covered, and the coffee itself was "scalding." McDonald's is actually known for making their coffee hotter than normal, which was something legal experts discovered the last time they were sued for a similar accident.

If this story sounds extremely familiar, like you've read it almost word for word before, that's because you have. In what became the poster for "frivolous American lawsuits" another woman sued McDonald's in 1992 after also spilling her coffee.

As the chain's PR team spun the story to make it look like the suit was over hot coffee, it turned out that 79-year-old Stella Liebeck had third-degree burns over 16 per cent of her body and spent a week in the hospital.

Liebeck attempted to resolve her case with McDonald's without the lawsuit. She initially only asked the restaurant to cover her medical bills, as the serious injuries she endured cost quite a bit to treat within the US healthcare system. She asked for $20,000. Representatives from McDonald's, however, only offered Liebeck $800, causing her to sue the chain.

Two woman have been severely burned by a McDonald's coffee, causing lawsuits (Getty Images)

Ultimately, the jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages, which was reduced to $160,000 because she was found to be partially responsible for the spill. They also suggested that McDonald's pay $2.7 million in punitive damages, a sum that was based on the revenue from just two days of coffee sales.

During the case, Lieback and her legal representation tested the coffee from multiple chains. McDonald’s coffee was 30 to 40 degrees hotter than coffee served by other companies. During the 1992 lawsuit, it was also revealed that hundreds of others were injured by the chain's extremely hot coffee, but none as severely as Liebeck.

Since then, McDonald's has seen multiple lawsuits over their food temperature. There are some key differences between Childress' case and Liebeck's case - and that's that Childress' injuries didn't cause her to spend a week in the hospital.

Though an injury is an injury, and Childress says hers were bad enough to seek medical help. Childress also has not yet asked for a specific sum in damages.

Yelena Mandenberg