[Music] in Albuquerque New Mexico an elderly woman was severely burned when she spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee in her lap an 81-year-old woman has been awarded $2.9 million after she sued McDonald's claiming their coffee was too hot Stella lebeck spilled just 8 ounces of coffee but she attracted a flood of attention the jury's award set off a media frenzy and became a rallying cry for those who believed are leg system at run a monck I think it's absurd but as her story cycled through newspaper headlines talk show story lines and late night punch lines one thing was lost the facts this story is the most widely misunderstood story in [Music] America the the public perception of it is Stella leeck won a lottery she bought the coffee she spilled it on herself and now look she's a millionaire when of course the facts are much more complicated than that Stella lebeck was a 79-year-old Widow sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car when she was burned on February 27th 1992 she had recently quit her job as a department store clerk and moved to Albuquerque to be near her daughter the day that the burns happened my mother and my nephew went through the drive-thru at McDonald's and got breakfast and coffee and they pulled into the parking lot and in the Ford Probe there's slanted surfaces everywhere there's no place to put the coffee she put it between her knees and lifted the lid off and in the process of doing that spilled the coffee and all of the hot liquid went into the sweatsuit that she was wearing and pulled in the the seat all I remember was trying to get out of the car I screamed not realizing I was burned that bad I knew I was in terrible pain the severity of the burns caused Stella Lebec to go into shock and her grandson immediately took her to the emergency room she was burned over 16% of her body 6% of the burns were third degree she was in the hospital for a week medical bills were $10,000 so Stella reached out to Donald's and asked to be reimbursed we couldn't believe that this could happen over spilling the coffee so we wrote a letter to McDonald's asking them to check the temperature of the coffee and to give recompense for the medical bills and the response from McDonald's was an offer of $800 Stella lebeck had never sued anyone before Albuquerque attorney Ken Wagner took her case before they went to trial they tried twice to settle out of court but McDonald's refused we bought a product it was used as intended it was unreasonably hot and therefore unreasonably dangerous and those were the essential facts I was not in it for the money I was in it because I want them to bring the temperature down so that people other people will not go through the same thing I did McDonald's policy was to serve coffee between 180 and 90° that's about 30° warmer than most home coffee brewing machines a burn expert testified that liquid at 180° could cause third degree burns within 15 seconds lawyers produced documents that showed that between 1983 and 1992 nearly 700 people claimed that they had been burned by hot coffee at McDonald's McDonald's was on Big Time notice that they had a product that was dangerous and it was burning people we argued that to the jury that they were callous and indifferent in simply not turning down a temperature an expert for McDonald's testified that burns are exceedingly rare one for every 24 million cups of coffee served they just said it's statistically insignificant and we're not going to change what we do people interact with hot beverages all the time in a fast food restaurant and that doesn't necessarily mean that restaurant is doing something wrong attorney Tracy jensx tried the case for McDonald's and argued that Mrs lebeck bore personal responsibility because she spilled the coffee on herself and that McDonald's coffee wasn't any hotter than the coffee at other fast food restaurants she said the reason the coffee was so hot was because that's what customers wanted McDonald's had a really really strong reason for why they brewed their coffee at the temperature they did it was an industrial standard based on the the maximum extraction of the flavor and the maximum holding temperature but the jury saw how liquid at that temperature can scald when they were shown graphic photos of Mrs leck's burned groin the photos depicted where they had to graph the skin from the side of her legs to close the third degree burn and I think if people would have seen the severity of the burns they would have realized it was not a laughing matter after 7 Days of testimony and 4 hours of deliberation jurors came up with a comprehensive answer to a complicated case they unanimously agreed to award Stella $200,000 in compensatory damages but because she caused the spill they reduced that to 160,000 jurors set punitive damages to send the message to McDonald's to turn down the temperature of the coffee I remember I could see Judge Scott going like this with his pencil and I I thought oh I hope he's counting digits on the verdict form and he was they based the amount on the revenue from two days of coffee sales $2.7 million the size of the award got the media's attention but it overshadowed the rest of the story details of the case and the facts related to how the jury made its decision went mostly unreported several days after the verdict I had news crews from France Japan Germany my driveway wanting to interview me mean I was stunned after the verdict came in Wednesday August 17th the Albuquerque Journal ran the first story The Associated Press and Reuters wire Services then filed reports and the story was picked up in dozens of newspapers worldwide it became an international news event but as the story's reach got bigger the word count got smaller in some papers who was not more than a blur 697 words in the in the Albuquerque Journal became 3 149 words in the AP and became as few as 48 words in various renderings by Major Metropolitan newspapers 48 words can't explain a lot and then woman coffee Millions sounds like a ripoff not like a logical consequence of a thoughtful uh trial the report aired on more than a dozen National broadcasts and twice as many local news shows the condensed telling of the story created its own version of the truth instead of pointing out she spilled the coffee in the passenger seat of a parked car this was the new narrative it seems she was holding a cup between her legs while driving clamped it between her legs drove down the street spilled it burned herself sued McDonald's and collected Stella has received letters saying stuff like I was driving down the road I had no business driving down the road with coffee between my legs and all that stuff see they're just plain ignorant my mother was made the villain in this story it's like bullying it feels like bullying I mean it's not like the McDonald's person leaned over the car and poured it was an accident very much like urban legends it is a very compelling story once everybody decides what is true about something and the media has been sort of an echo chamber for it then how do you deal with the fact that they might be wrong now she claims she broke her nose on the sneeze got at the Sizzler bending over looking at the chickpeas Oho my coffee was too hot it's coffee the lawsuit also got a lot of play on talk radio it was a very hot issue for a long time it's probably one of the most Sensational high-profile uh tort cases of the last 20 years so when tort reform comes up most people say oh you sure of the McDonald's case Republican lawmakers crafting the contract with America seize the moment they tapped into public outrage over frivolous lawsuits to promote the common sense legal Reform Act leck's case became exhibit a the lady goes through a fast food restaurant puts coffee in her lap Burns her her legs and sues and gets a big settlement that in of it of itself is enough to tell you why we need to have Tor reform she spilled hot coffee on her lap while sitting in her car and claimed it was too hot every day we hear about another outrageous lawsuit Stella's portrayal as a scheming wannabe millionaire was based on the jury's award but that amount was only a sugestion in reality the judge significantly reduced the punitive damages the judge reduced the award to about $650,000 according to a source familiar with the case it was settled for less than $500,000 Stella was not allowed to talk to the Press but over the last two decades her lawsuit has become part of the cultural discourse pardon me excuse us cof we got a chance do we have a chance you get me one coffee drinker on that jewelry you going to walk out of there a rich man Stella's daughter says that although over the years some stories have given greater context and A New Perspective such as the documentary hot coffee her family is still haunted by a perception that doesn't seem to go away getting bigger Jesus gettinger A C of cof million I like Toby Keith but he did the American Ride do we have to keep living this over and over and over again man it's hot how hot is it it's so hot I poured McDonald's coffee in my lap to cool off what people believe are the facts of this case and How Deeply held those convictions are has become useful to attorneys the case that became an example of jury's being out of control is now used to screen potential jurors It's a Wonderful litmus test if you're putting someone on a jury you really have to know how they feel about this case to know whether they are open to the facts that you're going to present McDonald's has been in the public mind cast as the victim that Stella liebeck needed to defend her reputation is the saddest piece of this whole story to me Stella lebeck died in 2004 when she was 91 the emotion that she went through she just felt like people were coming at her McDonald's Representatives didn't return emails or calls but according to current franchisee handbooks coffee must now be held and served 10° 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