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Actually, at first she only tried to get $20,000 to pay her medical expenses. But McDonald's only
wanted to give her $800. Then Liebeck and her lawyer tried a few more
times to reach a settlement
before the case went to trial, but McDonald's always refused. Probably because in other cases the
courts had decided that coffee burns were
an open and obvious danger, and McDonald's thought
Liebeck couldn't win. Liebeck filed a suit for gross negligence, saying that McDonald's sold coffee that
was 'defectively manufactured'.
The evidence showed that McDonald's did actually serve their coffee much too hot. In fact, more than
700 people had been burnt in the years from 1982 to 1992 by McDonald's coffee. The court found they
knew their coffee was injuring people.
The jury found for the claimant. They said that McDonald's was 80% responsible and Liebeck was
20% responsible. They said the warning on the coffee cup was too small and not sufficient.
At first Liebeck was awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages, which was then reduced by 20% to
$160,000. They also awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages. The idea was that McDonald's
should pay her two days' worth of coffee revenues, which were about $1.35 million per day.
The judge then reduced the punitive damages to $480,000. So the total amount of damages was
$640,000.
The decision was later appealed by McDonald's and Liebeck, but they
settled out of court for an
amount less than $600,000. Nobody actually knows how much she got, as a matter of fact.
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