Talk to an Attorney

Contact Minnesota-based Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey to speak with one of our personal injury attorneys free of charge.






Featured Attorney

Four Office Locations

Minnesota AttorneyWith offices in...
Minneapolis
Lakeville
Fairfax
Duluth

News from Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey, LTD.

Best Myths On the Net

You’ve heard them all. The McDonalds scalding coffee case… the driver who put his Winnebago on cruise control to make coffee… the burglar who successfully sues after he’s trapped in a victim homeowner’s garage for eight days. All of these cases have one thing in common: the facts have either been wildly distorted or they’re not true at all.

Urban Myths Planted To Discredit Civil Justice System

Everyone thinks they’ve heard the facts about the infamous McDonald’s scalding coffee case. Or how about the man who sued and won big money when he crashed his motor home after putting it on cruise control to go back inside and make coffee? Then there’s the ever-popular fable of a burglar who found himself locked inside the garage of the Pennsylvania home he had just ransacked. When the homeowners returned from vacation eight days later and freed the miscreant, he sued for mental anguish and was supposedly awarded half a million dollars and change.

These stories have become so central to the American experience that many people see red when discussing the topic of legal reform just because of them. So now for the facts:

The McDonalds Coffee Case

No single case has whipped up more anti-victim hysteria in this country than Stella Liebeck vs. McDonalds. What you’ve heard is that Stella spilled some hot coffee on herself after leaving the McDonald’s drive-up window in her hometown of Albuquerque, N.M. She subsequently sued and was awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages. Outrageous, screamed many!

When Stella went to put cream and sugar into the coffee she was holding between her legs, it spilled into her lap causing third degree burns to her inner thighs, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized eight days for emergency treatment including skin grafting. Seems some consultant had convinced McDonalds that coffee tasted best when served between 180 and 190 degrees. People burned by McDonalds coffee had filed more than 700 claims. Turns out most establishments serve their coffee in the 135 to 140 degrees range, about the same water temp as in your coffee maker at home.

Stella tried to settle for $20,000 but McDonalds refused despite the fact that its own quality assurance manager admitted in court that any food substance served at 140 degrees or above is a burn hazard. The jury awarded Stella $200,000 in compensatory damages which were later reduced to $160,000 because she was found 20 percent at fault for the spill. The trial court subsequently reduced punitive damages of $2.7 million (two days of coffee sales at McDonalds) to $480,000 even though the judge called McDonald’s conduct “reckless, callous and willful.”

The Winnebago Case And Other Urban Myths

Millions more people have received an e-mail titled, This is what’s wrong with the world. In it, a supposed attorney at Hogelmen, Hogelmen and Thomas in Dayton, Ohio recounts several outrageously frivolous lawsuits. Readers are exhorted to “assist our law offices in a tort reform program. We are attempting to put a stop to these insane jury awards… Forward it to every email address you know.” The  “Stella Award,” a mocking reference to the elderly woman involved in the McDonald case [click here for facts on McDonalds case], is awarded to following case.

In November 2000, Merv Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he could not actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago.

The e-mail also documents the 1998 case of A. Terrence Dickson from Bristol, Pa. According to the e-mail, Dickson was exiting a house he finished robbing by way of the garage.

He was not able to get the garage door to go up because the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, so Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. This upset Dickson, so he sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of half a million dollars and change.

Then there’s this gem supposedly from Austin, Tex., Kathleen Robertson was awarded $780,000 by a jury after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running amuck inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving tyke was Robertson's son.

Do these cases sound too bizarre to be true? Well, that’s because they are complete phonies as is the law firm and the lawyer who supposedly wrote the e-mail. “All of the entries in the list are fabrications,” according to Snopes.com, a widely respected Web site dedicated to rooting out urban and Internet myths.

So where do these cases come from? All indications are that they are part of a massive well-financed, concerted campaign by corporate lobby groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – which has launched a multi-million dollar advertising campaign attacking trial lawyers – to propagandize for tort "reform.” Their ultimate goal deprive individuals like you of your legal right to hold corporate wrongdoers accountable for causing death or injury.  We agree that people should take responsibility for their actions and that includes corporate wrongdoers as well as individuals.