Facts have no chance against opinions. They are like World War I infantrymen ordered again and again and again to mount mass charges against machine gun nests. The generals who ordered those suicidal attacks – and were not there – had the opinion that massed human bodies should be able to overrun those machine guns. The facts belied those opinions and so the generals ignored them.
I hasten to add that we all are subject to this phenomenon, including me. For instance, I have the opinion that George W. Bush is the worst president in American history. [1] Therefore; when evidence presents itself that he has done something right, I tend to discount it. For instance, wiping out Al Q’aeda’s Afghanistan training camps was the right decision, but I always seem to add my regrets that we distracted ourselves with Iraq before finishing the job in Afghanistan. I am unable to give him unqualified credit for anything.
On the other hand, my opinion is that Abraham Lincoln was our greatest president. Therefore, I tend to overlook the disastrous mistake he made appointing Stephen J. Field to the Supreme Court; a mistake for which we continue to pay the price. But that will have to wait for another post. Today’s is about the “Stella Awards.”
The “Stella Awards” constitute nothing but that persistent email that keeps showing up in our in-boxes about supposed stupid juries who award stupid plaintiffs gigantic sums of money for the stupid things they supposedly did. I got one of those emails just this morning. I could attach it to this blog, but I refuse. It is my piffling attempt to halt the stupid thing.
The email is named after Stella Liebeck, the plaintiff in the long-ago McDonalds hot coffee case. You remember the case. Mrs. Liebeck supposedly was driving a car and while driving put a hot cup of coffee between her legs and spilled it while attempting to get the lid off giving herself third-degree burns. The jury awarded her almost $3 million dollars.
No one ever mentions the actual facts of that case, which is the only real case in the email which, as I said before, is stupid.
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A. Mrs. Liebeck, 79 years old at the time, was not driving. Her grandson was. Almost 16 years ago.
B. The car was not moving. The grandson had stopped so Mrs. Liebeck could put cream and sugar in her coffee.
C. McDonald’s required its stores to serve coffee at a temperature between 180 degrees F and 190 degrees F.
D. You serve your coffee at home at temperature 40 to 60 degrees cooler.
E. Liquids at 180 degrees F cause “full skin thickness” burns (3rd degree) in 2 to 7 seconds. Mrs Liebeck had 3rd degree burns over her inner thighs, groin, peritoneum and genitals. She was in the hospital for 8 days during which the burns were debrided several times a day and she then had to have subsequent skin grafts. At the age of 80.
F. From 1982 until 1992, the time of the trial, McDonalds had more than 700 cases of third degree burns from its coffee reported to it.
G. McDonalds’ defense was that, while it knew of all the burns, it was going to leave its coffee at that temperature because “it tasted better.” Their own quality assurance manager testified that it was too hot to drink at that temperature and would cause burns in the mouth if anyone tried to drink it at that temperature but McDonalds’ own research purported to show that people drove home or to work before they tried to drink it or put cream or sugar in it.
H. The jury awarded her $200,000 in medical expenses but reduced it to $160,000 because they found Mrs. Liebeck 20% responsible. That was less than what she owed her medical insurance company.
I. The punitive damage award of $2.7 million was McDonalds’ revenues from one day of coffee sales. The judge ignored the jury verdict and reduced that award by $2.3 million. While on appeal the parties entered into a secret settlement. One hopes she got enough to pay her medical bills.
J. McDonalds now serves its coffee at 150 degrees or thereabouts.
K. Mrs. Liebeck is dead. McDonalds lives on.
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All the other cases in the email are complete fabrications. Lies. The emails always include the same ones: the woman who is tripped by her own child in a store, the guy whose hand is run over while he attempts to steal the hubcaps on the car, the thief trapped for eight days in the garage of his victim, the dog bite victim bitten while he was shooting his neighbor’s dog with a pellet gun, the women who fell in the bars; one on a coke she had just thrown at her boyfriend and the other attempting to sneak into the bar bathroom window to avoid paying the cover charge and that most wonderous urban myth – now more than 30 years old – of the driver who set the cruise control on the Winnebago and then got out of the driver’s seat and went to the bathroom; then sued Winnebago for injuries after it ran off the road because no one was driving the thing.
Here are the facts: Not one of those “cases” ever happened. Not one. They are propaganda; total fabrications. Lies. No such case would ever see the light of day in a real American courtroom. The email attempts to diminish our respect for our fellow citizens and our judicial system which has the consequence, whether intended or not, of helping large corporations avoid responsibility and hurting all the rest of us. Which gets me back to Stephen J. Field, but he has to wait.
There. I feel better. Sort of like those World War One generals. I just sent some facts out in a hopeless charge against the machine gun nests of opinion.
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[1]I struggle with James Buchanan who achieved his incompetency in just one term. It took George W. Bush two terms. Does this mean that Buchanan was better at incompetency than Bush or worse?
Tags: coffee case, corporate propaganda, facts, facts v. opinions, fake cases, George W. Bush, James Buchanan, legal propaganda, McDonalds' Coffee, opinions, Stella Awards, Stephen J. Field, Supreme Court, World War I, worst president
November 21, 2007 at 1:02 pm |
I think Bush accomplished it after one term, or possibly even after one month.
January 3, 2008 at 2:06 pm |
Last I heard, for every dollar the illegals add to the economy they take out $3. How is that helping the economy? Every state is struggling with their budgets because of these people draining the social services that we pay for with OUR taxes. My parents were immigrants 80 years ago – no one gave them ANYTHING they didn’t work for AND they became citizens, raised their families AND paid for their education. Your opinion of George Bush does not make you an unbiased observer; which is why we supposedly come to this site – for the unbiased facts only! You are just another member of the liberal media that is destroying pride in our country. Won’t come here again.
January 3, 2008 at 5:14 pm |
Even though Nancy won’t come here again, we appreciate her taking the time to post a comment. No matter that she doesn’t agree with the post about immigration or my opinion – clearly expressed as opinion – about President Bush’s term in office. The studies I’ve seen indicate that illegal immigrants add about 1% to our GNP which obviously are different from the ones Nancy knows about. And I hope no one who reads the posts about immigration think that I do not honor all the immigrants who came to this great country and – in the face of some pretty intense prejudice – built successful lives for themselves and their descendants. That is why this is a great country and why it will absorb this latest round of immigrants whose grandchildren will be every bit as proud of their grandparents as Nancy is of hers.
Disagree with me if you must but don’t impugn my pride in my country. Even liberals can be patriots.