Another McDonald’s Coffee Lawsuit Begins After Women Sues for Scalding Hot Coffee
Key takeaways
- An elderly lady is suing McDonald’s for too-hot coffee — again
- The franchise owner dismisses the allegations and says staff are not at fault
- McDonald’s share price fell over 2% by Thursday close
Beloved fast food chain McDonald’s is in hot water again. Or should we say, coffee? The international conglomerate is being sued by an elderly woman who alleges scalding hot coffee left her with burns in a throwback to the nineties verdict Maccys also faced.
The woman’s injuries weren’t as severe this time as the original 1990s lawsuit, so it’s unlikely to set the world on fire like it did thirty years ago. Instead, McD has a new problem to figure out in California. Here’s the latest.
What’s the latest McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit?
85-year-old Mable Childress alleges she spilt too-hot coffee into her lap while visiting a McDonald’s drive-through in June. Childress claims the McDonald’s employee didn’t adequately secure the lid, resulting in “scalding coffee poured out of the cup, causing severe burns on her body,” according to her lawyer.
Peter Ou, the McDonald’s franchise owner, dismissed the allegations. “My restaurants have strict food safety protocols in place, including training crew to ensure lids on hot beverages are secure,” he said.
The latest lawsuit is reminiscent of a very similar case against the fast food chain all the way back in the 1990s when 81-year-old Stella Lieback was awarded $2.9 million after spilling too-hot McDonald’s coffee on herself. The lawsuit spawned a bounty of pop culture references at the time, including making it onto one of the hottest TV shows at the time, Seinfeld.
However, Liebeck’s injuries were more severe than Childress, who suffered first-degree burns. Liebeck suffered second and third-degree burns on 16% of her body. At the time, the case won because McDonald’s didn’t warn its customers the coffee would be hot, which is why you see the ‘Caution: HOT’ warning today.
Was there an impact on McDonald’s share price?
McDonald’s share price closed 2.16% lower on Thursday after the news broke. The stock has fallen since California passed its landmark fast food bill, the Fast Food Franchisor Responsibility Act, on September 14. McDonald’s share price has declined 4.75% in the week following the Act’s passing.
The new Act imposes new standards for worker wages, working hours and various health and safety conditions for fast food workers. From April, fast food chains with at least 60 locations nationwide must pay a minimum of $20 an hour, almost $5 higher than the current California minimum wage.
The National Owners Association (NOA), representing over 1,000 McDonald’s franchise owners, said the new Act introduces costs that “simply cannot be absorbed by the current business model.” It argued that 95% of McDonald’s are operated by small business owners who would struggle to afford the new requirements.
The bottom line
It’s not every day McDonald’s gets sued for too-hot coffee — but this is the second time it’s happened in a few decades. Let’s hope poor Childress isn’t subject to the same ridicule Liebeck suffered in the nineties.
This week, a more pressing matter for the fast food conglomerate has been the California Act imposing higher wages for its workers. It’s an issue for McDonald’s bottom line, which could impact the share price further next year.
