On Jul 19, 5:25*pm, "Robert Green" wrote:
"Red Green" wrote in message

stuff snipped

If the tower bas is fenced and gated as I'm sure it is if it was a
commercial site, you *are not* on the hook for their trespassing,
breaking and entering, and subsequent injury.

Don't bet on it.

Especially in today's litigious society.

Yea, like the dumb-ass McD's woman who toasted her beaver with coffee.

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

Would you have just said "nevermind" if you had your balls burned off by not
just hot but scalding hot coffee? *Somehow, I doubt it.

*"A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns
(or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner
thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was
hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting.
Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her
claim for $20,000, but McDonalds refused."

When defendants refuse to pay reasonable claims because they know they can
*mostly* skunk the little guy, they often suffer punitive damages. *What
might have cost them as little as $20K ended up costing close to a million
because they wanted to play hardass. *Problem is they ran into a lawyer with
a harder ass than theirs that kicked them around they way they deserved.
Sometimes it's smarter to fess up than to fight. *McDonald's was serving
unreasonably hot coffee according to the testimony given, just 20 degrees
shy of boiling. *Other establishments and home drinkers usually serve/drink
coffee at the 140 degree mark or thereabouts. *That can cause burns, but
nowhere as serious as 190 degrees can.

McDonald's coffee, as served in the restaurant, was undrinkable because it
would have caused severe mouth and throat burns, so why make it so bloody
hot? *They did it because a) they were idiots and b) a consultant told them
to. *Since the suit, they've turned the coffee thermostat down. *They just
wanted to make a million dollar fuss out of being made to do it and they got
what they asked for. *How anyone but a franchisee can love anything
McDonald's does is beyond me. *Just look up "pink slime beef" and
"McDonalds" and you might not want to eat there anymore. *Or maybe
ammoniated centrifuged floor scrapings are your cuppa tea.

It turns out 700 other people had been burned by McDonald's unusually hot
coffee in much the same way, and some of those cases involved servers
mounting the wrong lids or mounting them improperly and basically tossing a
cup of nearly boiling water in the victim's lap.

The trial judge called McDonalds' conduct reckless, callous and willful
because they *knew* the product, as served, had seriously injured over 700
people before. *Sometimes it takes a big lawsuit to force a huge corporation
to stop selling bad tires, runaway cars, scalding hot coffee or salmonella
laced peanut butter. *Usually, a number of people have to die or be
seriously injured before anyone notices.

Lawyers serve a very valid purpose in the Corporate States of America. *You
can bet that hungry teams of them are going to be kicking BP's
well-deserving ass all around the Gulf of Mexico and the process will have a
deterrent effect on other idiot drillers who don't follow safety rules.
McDonald's makes more coffee sales in one day than they paid out to that
woman. *It's chump change for them.

--
Bobby G.

Bobby
You left out one of the many salient facts that came out at trial.
The coffee was served that hot so that it could not be drunk quickly
subjecting the staff to request for free refills which would have cut
into profits. That was discovered by the plaintiffs investigators in
McDonald's own files.
--
Tom Horne