Cop Sues Starbucks

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete


Quote:
A Snohomish, WA police officer has filed a lawsuit against the owner of Krispy Kreme, claiming the 12 donuts he consumed caused him to go into sugar coma and prevented him from being able to go to the restroom. The plaintiff stated he was not explicitly informed at the time of sale that donuts were made of sugar.

Link?

It was a joke, but this is where this society is heading, judging by the OP.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete


Quote:
A Snohomish, WA police officer has filed a lawsuit against the owner of Krispy Kreme, claiming the 12 donuts he consumed caused him to go into sugar coma and prevented him from being able to go to the restroom. The plaintiff stated he was not explicitly informed at the time of sale that donuts were made of sugar.

Link?

It was a joke, but this is where this society is heading, judging by the OP.

LOLOL. I was searching for it. Sounded legit to me.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: hatt
LOLOL. I was searching for it. Sounded legit to me.


wasn't once a perp successfully defended by a slimy lawyer by claiming too much sugar caused altered mental status?

 

[Smokescreen]

Warm Hot. Hot. Hot hot. Nuclear Hot.

Coffee drinkers should be aware that it could be any gradient of hot from years of experience consuming it. Everyone has different tolerances for temperature on the tongue and a preference for it to stay that temperature for the time it takes to finish the cup. Everyone knows after brewing the pots site on warmers for a space of time.

Bottom line....anyone who isn't prepared for coffee's different heat grades...is oblivious to the world around them.

One would never complain about too hot of food, or too cold of a milk shake...yet can complain of too hot of a drink? Its laughable.

The cop is a money grubbing moron.

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: Stewart Fan
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Because of greedy morons like him, we will all be served lukewarm coffee pretty soon.

Starbucks coffee is usually lukewarm anyway. I always ask for it extra hot and even then, its not as hot as I like.


At one of our businesses, we have a commercial Franke Coffee System, like this:

http://www.wholelattelove.com/products/f...MPlIaAleC8P8HAQ

and afaik the temperature is programmable, and once programmed by the installer, cannot be made much hotter. I don't know how to do it, anyway. There is a button the operator can push to make it hotter, but it doesn't make it much hotter, imo. Personally, I don't think it gets the coffee product hot enough. Some customers agree.

So, I really don't see how people are getting these blistering hot coffee's any more. The industry seems to have reacted.

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
We've fostered a large segment of society that blames everyone else for something as dumb as slurping down coffee that is too hot.

That's not the problem.

The problem is that we like being bombastic and judgmental more than we like understanding the story.

In the McDonald's case, the woman got 2nd and 3rd degree burns -- and McDonald's knew dang well the coffee was hot enough to cause those kinds of injuries. If that doesn't make you instantly understand why she sued, you have no idea what 2nd and 3rd degree burns are.

As for this case, I don't know what the facts are any more than anyone else does. But here's the allegation, per ABC News:
Quote:
Kohr claims the burn aggravated his Crohn’s disease and caused him to have surgery that led to the removal of a portion of his large intestine, the lawsuit states.

The suit alleges he was not the only one who has suffered from the burn because his wife has lost her "intimate partner.”

If this is true, this isn't some guy throwing a tantrum to deflect from his clumsiness; It's a legit injury, and it should be heard by a court.

 

[contrarian]

Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
I get the 'coffee is supposed to be hot... what an idiot' crowd, I really do. But here is the deal. Nobody should be giving a customer a cup of coffee hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns in less than a few seconds. Coffee is supposed to be ready to drink as soon as they hand it to you, isn't it? If they gave him a cup of coffee hot enough to severely injure him, they were negligent.

The state health departments need to step in. They effectively regulate the rest of the foodservice industry in order to prevent people from getting food poisoning, they should also regulate the temperature at which customers' coffee can be served in order to prevent people from getting seriously injured. This will accomplish two things:

1) no more frivolous lawsuits if the establishment can demonstrate the coffee was served at an appropriate temperature.
2) people will stop getting burned.

win-win

For the record, I don't drink coffee.


It's not really a win-win when the best you can hope for is a tepid cup of coffee. As someone who does drink coffee I can tell you it's much better hot. Surely we can expect adults to take reasonable care while consuming a hot beverage and avoid pouring it all over themselves.

I agree wholeheartedly on the food hygiene point but it's not really the same thing. The customer has no control over the cleanliness of the kitchen or the hygiene standards of the staff therefore regulation is essential.

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
.... , but here's the allegation, per ABC News:

Kohr claims the burn aggravated his Crohn’s disease and caused him to have surgery that led to the removal of a portion of his large intestine, the lawsuit states. ....


How is that reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer of the coffee system, or the business operating it in a commercial environment? Is it now strict liability for business?

This kind of nonsense is why a high quality commercial coffee maker like above ^^^^^^ linked, made in a first world country, costs five figures. Ya gotta sell a lot of lukewarm coffee to make that back.

 

[Smokescreen]

In the case of Kohr, sorry for his wife's loss.

If I had any condition that could be aggravated by a particular set of circumstance I would take all the due diligence to protect that condition. I would never expect someone who was completely unaware of my condition to take every precaution for me. Come on, what kind of world would we live in if every single thing we did had to be detailed to ad nauseam levels just in case someone, somewhere might partake of the thing we were distributing. I forgot, we actually live in that world, or specifically the country where you can sue anyone for anything and possibly win...even if you are 100% wrong.

 

[raytseng]

That's not what casued the McD judgement.
It was that McD had 700 reported cases over 10 years from their own logs, yet did nothing about it. Do the math, that's over 1 case a week.
They probably had a full time employee just to keep track of and pay off coffee settlements

So it's not a single thing. it was a pattern of 700 incidents, over and over and over again for 10years+.

Does that change your opinion if you knew that the company knows it happens every single week and still does nothing to change their policies>

 

[aquariuscsm]

I got a chocolate malt form Dairy Queen one time. It was soooo good that I slurped it too fast and got brain freeze,yeow!! Then after I finished it,my stomach looked slightly pooched out,but after all,I did order the grande size

Wonder if I can sue Dairy Queen for giving me some hellacious brain freeze and making me fat? Hmmmm $$$$

 

[redhat]

Tim Hortons coffee... cheap, tasty, can drink in a couple minutes.

 

[jimbrewer]

Yep. They could heat that McDonald's coffee to 1,000/degrees and it would still taste like dishwater. That lady got third degree burns.

Now they have those sleeves. So what's his excuse?

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
Nobody should be giving a customer a cup of coffee hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns in less than a few seconds.

Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
That lady got third degree burns.

Really??... 3rd degree burns?? Do you know what a 3rd degree burn is?

 

[Smokescreen]

Originally Posted By: raytseng
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
In the case of Kohr, sorry for his wife's loss.

If I had any condition that could be aggravated by a particular set of circumstance I would take all the due diligence to protect that condition. I would never expect someone who was completely unaware of my condition to take every precaution for me. Come on, what kind of world would we live in if every single thing we did had to be detailed to ad nauseam levels just in case someone, somewhere might partake of the thing we were distributing. I forgot, we actually live in that world, or specifically the country where you can sue anyone for anything and possibly win...even if you are 100% wrong.


That's not what casued the McD judgement.
It was that McD had 700 reported cases over 10 years from their own logs, yet did nothing about it. Do the math, that's over 1 case a week.
They probably had a full time employee just to keep track of and pay off coffee settlements

So it's not a single thing. it was a pattern of 700 incidents, over and over and over again for 10years+.

Does that change your opinion if you knew that the company knows it happens every single week and still does nothing to change their policies>



It only substantiates my opinion.

Actual temperature is fact. Perceived temperature is subjective. I could drink hot chocolate that is 37F and feel its too cold. To a child it could be too hot.

Sure it might be just a degree below a full boil or it could be just above luke warm....but only complete morons guzzle coffee from the off-the-lid and go. Anyone who has a brain sips it to gauge the temperature. The reason one does this is because one brain allows the learning center to log experience and apply it to a familiar situation.....aka you learn that when you don't gauge the temperature you burn your tongue and can't taste anything for a week. Once that registers in your brain it equates that it also could be hot on any part of your body. You go to a place to buy coffee for the first time...you test it first. You go to a place that you have been 40 times previously...you then have an idea how hot the coffee will be, but you still test sip it first. It would take a defect in the learning process to do anything different.

Those "700" couldn't have been trying coffee for the first time ever at a McD. They all had previous coffee drinking experience. If they had 70 complaints each year and sold a very low figure of 1M coffees per year that works out to 0.00007 % of the consumers perceived the coffee was too hot for their tastes or 999,930 found it to be just fine. 1M McD coffee drinks would be a very low estimate. The result is that 700 people in 10 years were determined to be completely oblivious that coffee can be hot and recognized them as having the inability to process a learning experience.

"Had a full time employee marking down"....pffttt LOL...it wasn't even an afterthought for McD. They were making nearly $1.5M per day at the time on coffee alone. They didn't change a thing to the temperatures afterwards because they were already conforming to industry standards. The whole case was preposterous and lead to tort reform. It served as an example as to the state of what society had become...it was so funny Seinfeld even mocked it...and it's a show about nothing.

 

[raytseng]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
Nobody should be giving a customer a cup of coffee hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns in less than a few seconds.

Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
That lady got third degree burns.

Really??... 3rd degree burns?? Do you know what a 3rd degree burn is?


It is and it is. Your skepticism is misplaced. Google for "pictures of liebeck" and it matches what a 3rd degree burn is

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: raytseng
That's not what casued the McD judgement.
It was that McD had 700 reported cases over 10 years from their own logs, yet did nothing about it. Do the math, that's over 1 case a week.
They probably had a full time employee just to keep track of and pay off coffee settlements

So it's not a single thing. it was a pattern of 700 incidents, over and over and over again for 10years+.

Does that change your opinion if you knew that the company knows it happens every single week and still does nothing to change their policies>


700 cases over 10 years and that constitutes a problem? McDonalds says they sell 1 billion cups a year! To say that 70 reports a year is a "pattern" is ridiculous, 70/1,000,000,000.

And the product is... coffee. It is supposed to be hot. Make it cooler as they do now and you get complaints it isn't hot enough.

 

[Clevy]

3rd degree burns means dead flesh and nerves.

I know. I was on fire for the better part of a minute and hairspray was used as an accelerant.
It was 4 months before being completely healed.
No cup of coffee is burning a person that bad.
Sorry

 

[SatinSilver]

Hard to believe such a dumb case made it to trial. Since a judge has to first decide if the case has merit or not. Something stinks about that part alone.

 

[glock19]

Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
I get the 'coffee is supposed to be hot... what an idiot' crowd, I really do. But here is the deal. Nobody should be giving a customer a cup of coffee hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns in less than a few seconds. Coffee is supposed to be ready to drink as soon as they hand it to you, isn't it? If they gave him a cup of coffee hot enough to severely injure him, they were negligent.

The state health departments need to step in. They effectively regulate the rest of the foodservice industry in order to prevent people from getting food poisoning, they should also regulate the temperature at which customers' coffee can be served in order to prevent people from getting seriously injured. This will accomplish two things:

1) no more frivolous lawsuits if the establishment can demonstrate the coffee was served at an appropriate temperature.
2) people will stop getting burned.

win-win

For the record, I don't drink coffee.


Seriously? I hope this is a joke. The government shouldn't have to save people from themselves.