Fun facts:
Subway is owned by Doctor’s Associates, Inc. so you’d assume that it’s a healthy thing. Well, the doctors in question are PhDs. Well, one of the guys is. Guy 1 was in going to become a PhD and had a friend who was already a PhD so had money to help start the business. The business was such a success guy 1 never bothered getting the PhD.
Food preparation in general is actually a pretty good analog to the nominal lumber issue.
A un-butchered dead chicken costs less than a butchered chicken (even though it lacks the head, feet and feathers), because the preparation is worth something.
A finished 2x4 is not a lesser product because it contains less material, it is a better product because it has been prepared and dried so that it is easier to use.
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Playing catchup so haven’t read the whole thread yet, but the truth is law suits like this rarely make it through appeals without being over turned or at the very minimum having the damages adjusted to something reasonable. Sort of the the old lady that sued McDonalds because she spilt hot coffee on herself. She never saw the 40 million. Not saying McDonalds wasn’t in the wrong, just that the damages awarded by the jury didn’t hold up.
it depends a lot on what the judge thinks. i keep bringing up the similar lowe’s suit where they were fined $1.6 million just a couple of years ago (in part to help pay for the "investigation. please, give me several hundred grand and i’m happy to go to lowe’s and measure lumber - i get costs, i still find the whole thing absurd).
by the way, i see some people quoting a bunch of misinformation about the “famous mcdonald’s case” in this thread, so here’s some actual info about it:
-the jury didn’t award her $40 million. they awarded her $200k in compensatory damages, reduced to $160k because they found her 20% responsible. they awarded her $2.7m in punitive damages, which the judge reduced to $480k.
-she originally asked McDonald’s for $20k to help cover medical bills; that’s all she wanted, and they refused.
-she wasn’t driving the car at the time, and when the coffee spilled, she received third-degree burns on 6% of her body (mostly the groin and related areas), was in the hospital for eight days, and had skin grafts performed.
-it was found that the average temperature of coffee served at home was between 135 and 145 degrees. mcdonalds required that their coffee be held at 180 to 190 degrees, that other establishments sold coffee at substantially lower temperatures, and that if she’d been served coffee at 155 degrees, the damage would have been much less severe.
-damningly, mcdonald’s lied and said that their customers bought coffee on the way to work or home with the intention of consuming it there, however their own research showed that customers intended to drink it behind the wheel, immediately after purchase.
-they also knew that coffee at those temperatures (180+) would burn people if they tried to drink it soon after purchase, and even worse, they knew of 700+ cases in the prior ten years of customers suffering burns from their coffee, including some who ended up with third-degree burns.
after the case was over, mcdonalds dropped the temperature of the coffee and given its rising popularity it doesn’t seem like it hurt them much. this case is often quoted as an example of lawsuits and juries gone awry, but it was an actual public danger that was rectified.
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I think this also supports what @jrnelson said, but it’s an interesting watch none-the-less:
Adam Ruins Everything: Mcdonalds Coffee Lawsuit
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Wonder if we are missing an opportunity here . Anybody want to join a class action against ice coffee? Brain freeze is nothing to laugh at. It’s a severe often debilitating condition.
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Often times cases like this are brought for the settlement alone with no intention of ever going in front of a judge or jury. I know of a couple of Fortune 500 companies that will settle all day long for under $150k rather than waste the resources involved with a trial.
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Anyone see the “Hot Coffee” documentary?
It covers the truths behind that Mc Donald’s story, and others.
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