Frickin litiginous people

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
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From Wikipedia:

First-degree burns are usually limited to redness (erythema), a white plaque and minor pain at the site of injury. These burns only involve the epidermis.

[size=5]Woman sues Starbucks; says scalding coffee, unattached lid caused disfigurement[/size]
Oct 25, 2008 (The Knoxville News Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)

Jordan Triplett went for a morning pick-me-up from Starbucks and wound up with first-degree burns.

Now, she’s suing the Seattle-based coffee house empire for $250,000 in a Knox County Circuit Court lawsuit that blames Triplett’s burns on a barista’s lid snafu.

“This case involved real and significant injuries, unlike other cases where individuals have sought compensation from similar vendors,” attorney Gregory P. Isaacs said. A lawsuit over McDonald’s coffee that burned a woman in the 1990s spurred national debate over the need for tort reform.

“It’s significant to note Ms. Triplett attempted to resolve this in a reasonable fashion without litigation and received no response,” Isaacs said.

A Starbucks representative did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges that the 23-year-old Triplett drove to a Starbucks on Kingston Pike on July 13 and bought coffee via the store’s drive-through window. The lawsuit is silent on what Triplett ordered.

Whatever she ordered, she knew right away it was hot, the lawsuit states.

“She experienced extreme heat radiating through the cup and protective cardboard sleeve,” Isaacs wrote. “[She] balanced the extremely hot cup of coffee on her thigh with her hand on top of the cup as she pulled away from the window and negotiated a turn onto the roadway.”

Once on Kingston Pike, Triplett noticed “the lid of the coffee container was loose and not affixed properly,” the lawsuit states.

“Before Triplett could achieve a better grasp upon the cup, the lid dislodged from the cup, thereby causing scalding coffee to spill and splash onto [her] lap, right thigh and right hand,” the lawsuit states.

The coffee soaked through her denim jeans, causing her to cry out in severe pain, according to the lawsuit.

She drove to a nearby friend’s house and disrobed.

“She discovered that she had severe blisters and burns on her hand, inner thigh and vaginal area,” the lawsuit states.

A doctor later classified the injuries as first- and second-degree burns, Isaacs wrote. She racked up hefty medical bills and suffered “severe and permanent injuries [and] cosmetic impairment, scarring and disfigurement” as a result of the burns, the lawsuit alleges.

“Triplett immediately contacted the Starbucks franchise where she purchased the scalding coffee to inform them of the incident and to request that the employees be more careful in attaching the lids to the container and monitor the temperature of the coffee,” the lawsuit states. “The Starbucks agent was incredibly unresponsive.”

She later filed a complaint with the firm’s corporate headquarters that netted her a gift certificate offer instead of restitution for her medical bills, according to the lawsuit.

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There is currently a bill being looked at in the Alberta Legislature that would have put the blame directly on to the driver. The proposed law is one that would introduce a fine for “Distracted Driving” which would include but not limit things like drinking coffee, putting on make up, text messaging, talking on a cell phone, and anything else the police may think is causing you to be distracted from full attention on your driving.

Clearly this woman would fall into the catigory of distracted driving and she would be breaking the law. This would mean that she could not sue.

3

I love Canada. Never been there. But I like what I keep hearing about the place!

This is my favorite line: “[She] balanced the extremely hot cup of coffee on her thigh with her hand on top of the cup as she pulled away from the window and negotiated a turn onto the roadway.”

And it is not her fault?!

And what kind of disfigurement are we talking about anyway: “She discovered that she had severe blisters and burns on her hand, inner thigh and vaginal area,” the lawsuit states. :shock:

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she would be breaking the law. This would mean that she could not sue.

Here in the USA, if they slip and fall while burgularizing your house they will win a lawsuit against you. They may have to litigate it from jail, but they most likely will win!

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Try this one on for size too;
Woman goes to pizzeria and orders pizza. Pizza is brought to her table. She removes a slice and bites into it, then cries out in pain as the roof of her mouth is burned and blistered. She sues, and wins. Moral of the story, DON’T SERVE HOT PIZZA! If anybody from last weeks pizza seminar is reading this it will sound all too familiar as this was one of the topics that we covered in our lecture portion of the class.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

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You’re making that one up right, Tom? Please say you are.

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OMG. Look what I found:

Woman Sues Pizza Hut Over Burned Chin

A woman is suing the Pizza Hut in Lehighton, Pa., because the hot poppers she ordered as an appetizer were, well, hot and popped when she bit into them.

Sorana Georgescu-Hassanin claims she may be permanently impaired because the ‘‘excessively hot’’ oil in the deep-fried, cheese-stuffed hot pepper severely burned her chin.

Her husband, Hatem Hassanin, is suing for the loss of companionship and comfort of his wife.

They are suing Pizza Hut for at least $25,000 each.

The suit names the Dallas corporation and Richard Whitson, who owns the Lehighton franchise and his company, QSM, LLC. It says they failed to warn Sorana Georgescu-Hassanin the appetizers were hot and neglected to drain the oil from them.

Um, I can guess what a burned chin would deprive him of…

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OK, I’m making it up, but the truth is, I’m not. Maybe we need to get our customers to sign a release, or better yet, place large signs at the tables saying something to the effect of (caution, pizzas fresh from the oven may be HOT!) Also, next time you see someone struggeling with a door because their arms are full of packages, it might be best to just ignor the situation. A few years ago a fellow tried to help a lady in that situation, as he opened the door, she also grabbed for it and the door hit her in the shoulder, and according to the court records, she suffered permenant injury to her shoulder…yes, she won the suit! to the tune of about $350,000.00. Things like this bring to mind the old joke about judges and lawyers. If you were out in the middle of the ocean, and had ten judges and ten lawyers chained to a 2,000-pound anchor, and then dropper it overboard, what would you have?
Answer: A good start!
With the economy the way it is, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least bit to see a lot more of this cxxp happening.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

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Do a Google search for the “Stella Awards”…Stella being the old lady who spilled her coffee in her lap after going through a McDonalds Drive Thru…

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I just ate ice cream and now have a brain freeze. I’m going to sue the ice cream maker for making my ice cream TOO cold.

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Go for it! With the way our courts are you’ve probably got better than even odds of winning your case! LOL It’s just about that bad.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

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Hmm…

You know she is just money seeking, so why doesn’t she represent the correct level of burns. Second degree burns come with blisters…first degree do not.

Okay, sarcasm aside…I am SO sick of this.

It’s like an email my mom sent to me the other day.

"Back in my day, if little George was out of control and fell of my neighbor’s porch, he got a whuppin’ from me when I came to collect him, and another whuppin’ when we got home, and an apology given to the neighbors for the embarrassment.

Little did I know I could’ve owned George’s friend’s house and became rich from it".

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

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Yep, different times, different strokes, and ddifferent folks. My, how our society has changed.
A number of years ago, in Nebraska, a farm was being vandalized on a regular basis, police could do nothing about it due to the rural location, so the farmer took the matter into his own hands, and set up a trap for the vandal. The trap was a trip wire tied to a shotgun. It worked and blew the vandal’s foot off at the ankle. Vandal sues the farmer and wins. Farmer doesn’t have the insurance, so the court orders the farm to be sold at public auction and all proceeds up to the court award are to go to the “victim”. On the day of the auction all of the local farmers show up for the auction, any strangers are taken aside for a little chat. Farm is put up for bidding as a complete, working farm with all of the equipment, opening bid was $1.00, no further bidding took place, SOLD! The farm was sold for the sum of $1.00. The deed was handed back to the original farmer, and the “victim” got the proceeds, not to exceed the amount awarded by the court, which was…$1.00.
This was news in all of our local papers about 15-years ago.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor