Science, Art, and Coffee

So I’m sure almost everyone has heard of the case in which a woman spills hot McDonald’s coffee on herself and wins almost $3 million. I had always assumed, like pretty much everyone else, that it was the woman’s own fault and that she shouldn’t have gotten a dime.

Well, a couple of years ago, I was taking this one computer class, and someone brought up the coffee case. Another guy then said that his uncle (or someone) was a judge (or something), and had told the dude what really happened: the coffee was so hot that it melted the adhesive that held the paper cup together, and that the cup fell apart in the woman’s lap. In light of that information, I guess now that some kind of judgement probably was justified.

This Wikipedia article has the full story about Liebeck vs. McDonald’s. But whatever the truth of the case, I’d say it’s a good idea not to have a hot cup of coffee anywhere near one’s groinal area!