Over at Trainorders last week, we were talking about the slave reparations lawsuit. It was on topic for a railfan discussion list -- even if just barely -- because one of the three companies -- so far -- that has been sued is CSX Railroad, a railroad that was not in existence until 1980. One of the respondents said, "The sad thing is that even though I'm sure that 99% of the public will agree that this lawsuit is laughable, the plaintiff will win, just like that lady who spilled coffee on her lap at McDonald's."

Cynical, aren't we? The judicial system gets a lot of flack. Even the lawyers tell lawyer jokes. The O.J. Simpson case did not help matters out one bit. But I think something gets lost when we hear about the frivolous lawsuits and obvious miscarriages of justice. Are you ready for this? Sit down if you're not already sitting down. Here it goes. I think for the most part, the judicial system works as it should.

There are obvious issues that need to be addressed. No one will argue that a wealthy defendant will get off more than an unwealthy defendant. Guess what. That's called the free market place. You get what you pay for. Is it fair? Of course not. Life isn't fair and it never has been. How the hell can you explain "pop sensations" Britney, Christina, N'Sync and the Backside Boys? If life was fair, we never would have heard of any of them in the first place! And explain this one to me. Celine Dion. At least the lords saw fit enough to rid the airwaves of Michael Bolton.

So anyway, yes, wealthier clients will get off before those of us who are less unfortunate. But two cases in the past few weeks have ended exactly how they should have ended. Andrea Yates got what she deserved. I don't care what anyone says. DSS in Texas may have looked away a few too many times. Her husband could be the biggest jerk to walk the planet since that dickweed "Dice" Clay. But that woman still drowned her five kids in a bath tub. You can talk about giving her the help she needs. You can talk about having compassion. But from where I stand, all the help and compassion she ever needed ended at least four murdered children ago.

And then there is the horrific dog mauling case where Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old lacrosse coach, was torn to bits by two large, viscous dogs with a history of frightening people Whipple. A Los Angeles jury found Marjorie Knoller guilty of second-degree murder and her husband, Robert Noel, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of their neighbor. After Whipple was torn to shreds, Noel wrote to this son, "Neighbors be damned. My feelings about Presas haven't changed." While we're at it, that's a stupid fucking name for a dog.

So the system does sometime work. But we seem to only hear about the times when it doesn't work such as the infamous McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit. But closer investigation tells us that there is more to this case than some people want to hear. According to the Wall Street Journal, McDonald's callousness was the issue and even jurors who thought the case was just a tempest in a coffee pot were overwhelmed by the evidence against the Corporation.

Here are some other facts in the case that you may be unaware of:

1.) For years, McDonald's were aware they had a problem with the way they make their coffee -- that their coffee was served much hotter than the industry standard by at least 20 degrees. In fact, they knew its coffee sometimes caused serious injuries -- more than 700 incidents of scalding coffee burns in the past decade have been settled by the Corporation. Yet they never so much as consulted a burn expert regarding the issue. It has been said that serving coffee this hot reduces the amount of coffee a restaurant has to make in a day and optimizes taste. Therefore, they make more money.

2.) A McDonald's quality assurance manager testified in the case that the Corporation was aware of the risk of serving dangerously hot coffee and had no plans to either turn down the heat or to post warning about the possibility of severe burns, even though most customers wouldn't think it was possible.

3.) The woman, an 81-year old former department store clerk who had never before filed suit against anyone, said she wouldn't have brought the lawsuit against McDonald's had the Corporation not dismissed her request for compensation for medical bills. Her injuries were serious -- third degree burns on her groin, thighs and buttocks that required skin grafts and a seven-day hospital stay. In all, she was burned over six percent of her body.

4.) The woman was sitting in the passenger seat of a car driven by her grandson. They went through a drive through, then he pulled to a stop out of the way of the next car behind them so she could open the coffee. It was then, in a stopped car, that the coffee spilled. One myth of this case is that she was driving the car and tried to open the coffee while the car was moving. And, finally,

5.) A report in Liability Week, September 29, 1997, indicated that Kathleen Gilliam, 73, suffered first degree burns when a cup of coffee spilled onto her lap. Reports also indicate that McDonald's consistently keeps its coffee at 185 degrees, still approximately 20 degrees or more hotter than at other restaurants. Third degree burns occur at this temperature in just two to seven seconds, requiring skin grafting, debridement and whirlpool treatments that cost tens of thousands of dollars and result in permanent disfigurement, extreme pain and disability to the victims for many months, and in some cases, years.

So going back to the discussion on Trainorders, I pointed out a few of these "McFacts" to the fellow who brought this case up. I made the good argument that there are things about our system of justice that needs work. But before you start naming case after case off as proof of this, do your homework. Of course, he didn't name case after case off to prove his point. He named this one. After I made the closing argument, so to speak, he wrote back, "If you put a cup in your lap, holding it with your legs, and drive off, hitting bumps along the way, the liquid contained within is likely to spill." Which means that he was listening.

In closing, do your homework, too. Don't believe everything you hear on TV, on radio, in print or on the internet. Leno may make good jokes about this, Limbaugh may get all sweaty and riled up and some guy hacking away at a computer in South Carolina may try his best to be Dennis Miller. But it doesn't mean it's so. If you do, you may end up thinking Al Gore invented the internet, cigarettes don't cause cancer and that a little old woman somewhere won 2.7 million dollars from McDonalds from something that was her fault in the first place.

By the way, the jury awarded her punitive damages of 2.7 million. The judge, however, lowered the dollar amount to just under $500,000. Something else that hasn't been reported widely.

Related Rants:
Those Lying Republicans: Al Gore Created the Internet (09/25/2000)
Slave Reparations Anyone? (03/30/2002)

Relevant Links:
McFacts abut the McDonalds Coffee Lawsuit
Center for Consumer Law: The McDonald's Coffee Case
The Actual Facts About The McDonalds' Coffee Case

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