www.med-art.com
The Detroit Free Press (12/10, Allyn, 280K) reports that a year ago, a passenger on a Southwest flight bound for Houston spilled hot water for a cup of tea into her lap and "suffered skin blisters and second-degree burns, according to her attorney Rob Anderson, who filed an $800,000 negligence lawsuit against Southwest on her behalf." According to the Free Press, the plaintiff did not have a drop-down table on which to place her cup of tea because she was sitting in the front row. The article notes that "the case echoes one involving a New Mexico woman who won a settlement after spilling a piping hot cup of McDonald's coffee on herself in 1992." The story goes on to say that although the 1992 case was cited by many advocates of tort reform as an example of greed and abuse in the civil justice system, many legal experts argue that the facts and outcome of the case were distorted by time and by propaganda. Daniel Clayton, a medical malpractice attorney, "said the propaganda about the case has helped marshal public opinion in favor of lawsuit reform," adding that such legislation ends up hurting those who have been harmed in some way. The article also describes the coffee case and its effects in further detail.
