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Common Sense and Delicious Tater Tots Prevail in Hot Coffee Case

By Eric Lipman

Yesterday we reported on the suit filed by the family of a kid who claimed to have been injured by hot sauce that was too hot at a Tennessee Steak 'N Shake. In coming up with other examples of suits against restaurant chains for food-related injuries and distress, I purposefully omitted the most well-known variety: the hot coffee case. This genre of legal nonsense was pioneered by Stella Liebeck and her attorneys back in 1992, and, much to the chagrin of thinking people everywhere, lives on to this day. So I was thrilled this morning to see that at least one federal judge faced with such a suit didn't surrender his brain to the marshals on the way into the courthouse. Point of Law pointed me to the Abnormal Use blog's writeup of a decision granting summary judgment to Sonic restaurants in a hot coffee case out of Louisiana. While it's hard not to sympathize with anyone whose "groin area" was severely burned by hot coffee, it's also hard to take seriously his claims that he was surprised by the fact that the coffee was hot. Creativity points, though, are definitely in order for plaintiffs counsel's attempt to rebut the...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on October 19, 2010 (boomark / email).