美国老太咖啡烫伤索赔案

饰途英语

双语知识创作者

我想大家都应该听说过这个案例，简单来说就是美国一个老太太在买咖啡的时候，不小心烫伤了自己，她就起诉麦当劳公司，说咖啡温度太高了，要求索赔286万美元，并且还赢了官司.

我们正常在国内来讲，无论在哪里，不小心烫伤了自己，应该不至于去起诉哪个公司，但是这个发生在美国的案例胜诉了，下面我们来看一下这个案例.

事情发生在1992年2月，美国新墨西哥州一位79岁高龄的老太太，名字叫Stella Liebeck，她外孙驾驶轿车带着她路过一家麦当劳快餐店时，通过驾驶销售窗口买了一杯咖啡，49美分.

It happened in February 1992, a 79 year old woman named Stella Liebeck in New Mexico, USA. when her grandson drove her by a McDonald's fast food restaurant, she bought a cup of coffee through the driving sales window, 49 cents

离开麦当劳后，她需要往咖啡里添加奶粉和白糖，外孙便停住了车，她把杯子放在双膝之间，左右拿着奶粉袋和糖袋，右手要打开杯盖子，没想到一个意外，整杯子的滚烫咖啡洒在双腿之间，致使大腿内次，腹股沟，臀部等严重烫伤，其中三度烫伤面积占全身皮肤的6%.

After leaving McDonald's, she needed to add milk powder and sugar to the coffee, and her grandson stopped the car. She put the cup between her knees, holding the milk powder bag and sugar bag left and right, and opened the lid of the cup with her right hand. Unexpectedly, the whole cup of scalding coffee was sprinkled between her legs, causing serious burns in her thighs, groins, hips, etc., of which the third degree scalding area accounted for the whole skin 6%.

当时Stella住了八天医院，生命没有大碍，出院后卧床不起，两个多月后伤口才痊愈，后来有做过多次植皮手术，在之后两年的时间里难以自如行走.尽管Stella有医疗保险，但是自费的医疗费仍然很多.

At that time, Stella stayed in the hospital for eight days, and her life was not seriously affected. After leaving the hospital, she was bedridden, and the wound healed more than two months later. Later, she had skin grafting for many times, and it was difficult to walk freely in the next two years. Although Stella had medical insurance, she still had a lot of medical expenses at her own expense

在伤势逐渐好了之后，Stella的女儿和家人就感觉麦当劳的咖啡过烫，要求麦当劳赔偿医疗费误工费2万美元，但是当时麦当劳不肯赔付，只同意支付800美元。

After the injury gradually recovered, Stella's daughter and family felt that McDonald's coffee was too hot, and asked McDonald's to compensate 20000 dollars for the medical expenses for work delay, but at that time McDonald's refused to compensate, only agreed to pay 800 dollars.

在协商没有结果之后，Stella的家人请了律师以咖啡质量缺陷，危及人身安全，酿成责任事故为由将麦当劳告尚当地法庭.

After the negotiation failed, Stella's family asked a lawyer to sue McDonald's to the local court on the grounds that the coffee quality was defective, endangering personal safety and causing a liability accident

1994年在新墨西哥州联邦地区法院，这个案件开庭，与我们想象的一样，大部分人都支持麦当劳.

n 1994, in the Federal District Court of New Mexico, the case opened. As we thought, most people supported McDonald's

最后大家法官，律师，陪审团等他们的争论点在咖啡的温度，到底多少度成才合适呢？正常来讲，星巴克，汉堡王等美国快餐店出售的咖啡温度在75度左右，而麦当劳的咖啡温度在82到86度，这个温度如果烫到皮肤之后，会很快造成烫伤.

In the end, judges, lawyers, juries and so on argue about the temperature of coffee. How much is the right temperature? Normally, Starbucks, Burger King and other American fast-food restaurants sell coffee at about 75 degrees, while McDonald's coffee at 82 to 86 degrees. If the temperature burns to the skin, it will soon cause burns

最主要的是，麦当劳公司没有在咖啡杯的醒目之处，以法律术语比如高温，警告烫伤等来提醒消费者注意，从法律角度来讲，这是明显的疏忽.

The most important thing is that McDonald's didn't pay attention to the striking points of coffee cups. It used legal terms such as high temperature, warning and scalding to remind consumers. From a legal point of view, this was an obvious oversight

麦当劳的律师说，滚烫的咖啡会造成严重烫伤，这是基本的尝试，不需要警告提醒.

McDonald's lawyers said that hot coffee can cause serious burns, which is a basic attempt, without warning

控方强调的是，麦当劳咖啡温度过高，超出了基本常识的范畴.

The prosecution stressed that McDonald's coffee temperature is too high, beyond the scope of basic knowledge

最后结果：

陪审团认为麦当劳应该判赔偿她16万美元的损失，并支付原告270万美元的惩罚性赔偿.一共286万.

The jury said McDonald's should pay $160000 in damages and $2.76 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff

法官审理后，最终判决赔偿64万美元给Stella. 双方都提出上诉，但是最红双发达成秘密协议，大约70万美元左右.

After the trial, the judge finally awarded Stella $640000 in damages. Both sides appealed, but the most popular two sides reached a secret agreement, about $700000

这个案例之后，我们都觉得无论从法律还是常识上，都感觉这个案子都是荒谬至极，常识性的东西还需要去花这么长时间调查吗，并且还争论到了咖啡的温度到底应该是多少.

还有一个传说，美国一个老太太把刚洗过澡的猫放到微波炉烤干，结果猫死了，她把微波炉高尚法庭，因为说明说上没写不能把猫放进微波炉

这个案例告诉我们有时候你觉得常识行的东西并不一定所有人都认为是对的！

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