Family of girl scalded by Denny’s coffee wins $500,000 settlement
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Nuisance lawsuit brought on by a litany of ads on TV telling everyone, whenever something bad happens, sue....apparently Lucy and Ricardo were paying attention....sorry it happened but, it's not grossly negligent...maybe the restaurant ought to sue the parents for fumbling the coffee and causing undue stress, blah blah blah....it was an ACCIDENT....the injuries, while sad, are not permanent...seems like this would have settled out for considerably less.
Here's an interesting fact, taken directly from the news story. The claim by the family was that she would require "a lifetime" of medical care, which is why the money was demanded. Now, if that's the case, two things would happen in a normal world:
1) She should have all of her medical care paid for directly from that fund, with no coverage from insurance or any other party (hospital, taxpayer, or otherwise) absorbing any single cent of cost of her care; and
2) Once her care is completed, the remainder of the money should be refunded.
Of course, that would never happen because it makes too much sense and proves that the complaints of the parents were simply lies.
P.S. First- and second-degree burns don't require a lifetime of care, FYI. I'm just working off their false premise for amusement purposes. The reality is the parents are responsible, the end. All Buffalo got was a restaurant closure, thanks to two Puerto Ricans.
At the end of the day it's lawyers trading money. We just had a case last year at the Saddledome in Calgary where a lady tripped on a sidewalk with a very slight edge to it. It happened that there was a good witness.
The law firm was not only prestigious, but these guys all know each other. Out of 170,000 I doubt if she'll see even 40 percent. And it didn't even make the news. She wasn't even hurt.
Additionally, sometimes settlements really are appropriate. If a drunk driver runs over someone in a crosswalk, there is no particular reason for a trial. He's responsible and that's it. The sooner the claim is paid, the better off we all are.
It's true that the driver is responsible, but the case would be settled much faster by a judge. In many cases, the driver will go before a judge over the drunk driving charges long before any settlement is reached regarding compensation for the victim.
After the person has gone before the judge, and been issued a sentence for their drunk driving, the lawyers will still be negotiating, sometimes for months, over how much compensation the driver should pay the victim (and their lawyers). That is, IF the driver can afford a good lawyer. And if they are rich enough to afford the best lawyers in town, they might not have to pay the victim anything.
Why not let the judge decide compensation at the same time they decide to take away their license and charge fines or send them to treatment?
According to your article the plaintiff did, indeed, place the coffee cup between her legs while removing the lid to put cream and sugar in the coffee.
Seems to me that common sense would dictate that since 1) car seats are generally not level, and 2) the styrofoam is "squishable", even a slight movement of her legs together- perhaps to steady the cup, might have resulted in the coffee spilling. IMO what she did was an accident waiting to happen. Between my legs on a soft car seat is the LAST place I'd park my coffee, especially if I were trying to get it open.
I see what her attorneys have claimed as to the extent of her injuries as a result of that spillage, if she truly had all those injuries, that's unfortunate, but it's a well known phenomenon that plaintiff's attorneys are wont to exaggerate their clients' injuries to jack up the awarded amounts if they win the case. So it's anyone's guess.
Have you seen the pictures? It was awful. Not just her legs, but her vulva and anal area - 3rd degree burns!!
At the end of the day it's lawyers trading money. We just had a case last year at the Saddledome in Calgary where a lady tripped on a sidewalk with a very slight edge to it. It happened that there was a good witness.
The law firm was not only prestigious, but these guys all know each other. Out of 170,000 I doubt if she'll see even 40 percent. And it didn't even make the news. She wasn't even hurt.
Even if she was hurt, she has no actual standing to sue. ("Actual" meaning "rational.") The reason she can sue -- and worse yet, win -- is because of the litigious nature of a certain segment of the population. It's easy to say "blame the lawyers," but the lawyers are only there because of the litigants and their peers who sit on the juries, eager to hand out other people's money. Sure, the lawyers are scum, but look at the people just on this forum who are like "makes sense to me!"
Have you seen the pictures? It was awful. Not just her legs, but her vulva and anal area - 3rd degree burns!!
That's irrelevant. Tens of millions of people have been able to manage to drink coffee without being horribly disfigured. Her argument boils down to "can you believe I'm this stupid? Give me money!" In fact, the worse her injuries are, the more it speaks to her intellect. If you said "she tried to drink coffee ...and now she's a double amputee and confined to her bed for the rest of her life!!" I'd actually find that more hilarious.
FWIW, I was involved in a lawsuit myself which was settled in an out-of-court settlement. I didn't want that. My brother and sister didn't want that. We wanted it to be settled by a judge or jury. But my other brother, the greedy one, wanted quick cash, and the lawyer didn't care about majority opinion. He pushed for a settlement, and pressured us to agree into one. Then he found a sneaky way to get himself released from us as clients, so he could only represent the brother that did want a settlement, and forced a settlement on us.
About a month before the settlement, the lawyer for the other side was appointed as a new judge; but our lawyer insisted that he had no idea she was going to be made judge. Yeah right.
Out-of-court settlements are great for people who want quick cash, or for people who want to negotiate their own deals regardless of the law. They are not good for people who believe in justice and who want to see things determined by a (hopefully) impartial judge or jury.
They certainly do not speed things up either. We wanted a "speedy trial", but the lawyers dragged it out for years. (While they negotiated over a settlement, even though our lawyer knew that 3 out of 4 of us didn't want one.)
It's always a parent's responsibility to protect their child. But a restaurant also should properly train employees about hot liquids as well. The article is not specific about how soon after being seated the coffee is placed on the table. Also, for the record, a 14-month-old is not an infant but a mobile toddler.
It sounds like she had 1st-degree burns, which are bad but not usually devastating. Inevitably this will remind people of the Stella Liebeck/McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit, which involved 3rd-degree burns, but anyone who doubts that lawsuit was frivolous only needs to view photos of her injuries to understand how severe they were.
Sounds like the settlement was the way to go for the restaurant. That's one reason businesses have insurance.
What bonehead in teh corner office would decide to make coffee so hot that it would give someone first degree burns. Coffee is made to be drinkin which means it will come into contact with the human body. It is completely ridiculous to make coffee so hot that it gives people first degree burns.
What bonehead in teh corner office would decide to make coffee so hot that it would give someone first degree burns. Coffee is made to be drinkin which means it will come into contact with the human body. It is completely ridiculous to make coffee so hot that it gives people first degree burns.
Got news for you, the coffee you make at home is that hot. Here's another interesting fact: almost 100% of humans on this Earth can figure out how to drink coffee without dying.
That's irrelevant. Tens of millions of people have been able to manage to drink coffee without being horribly disfigured. Her argument boils down to "can you believe I'm this stupid? Give me money!" In fact, the worse her injuries are, the more it speaks to her intellect. If you said "she tried to drink coffee ...and now she's a double amputee and confined to her bed for the rest of her life!!" I'd actually find that more hilarious.
You also wrote the following:
Quote:
Here's the other point: nobody's life is worth $1 million. Now, that may shock and offend most of you, but it's quite true. You may have no problem in SUING someone for some ridiculous amount -- like $50 million, if your mother dies, for example -- but the fact is that nobody on Earth has ever SPENT $1 million of their own personal money keeping someone alive. I always laugh at how people say "my life is priceless." Yeah, but if the cost of a medical procedure to you is $3000 you refuse to pay it? Then your life is worth less than $3000 to you. And that's to YOU. Your life is worth way less than that to me, if it's worth less than that to you. People use these emotional arguments to win jury arguments, but they're complete B.S.
Obviously, you think the life of the average human being life is near worthless and that physical injuries are to be mocked, so why is it no surprise that you will find fault in every verdict that awards some plaintiff money for injuries? I suppose one's estimate of another person's worth is proportionate to the estimate of one's own worth....but I am not a psychologist so I would not know.
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