Add this to the list of lawsuits that sound wacky at first, but have real merit when you dig deeper.  When one thinks of coffee spills from a fast food place, usually we think of the McDonald’s coffee case.  In 1992, Ms. Liebeck brought a product liability lawsuit against McDonalds after she was burned by coffee purchased from McDonalds.  She received serious burns from the hot coffee (served at 180-190 degrees).  Liebeck actually won the case after it was shown there were over 700 reports of burns from coffee and that it was McDonalds policy to have extremely hot coffee (usually it is 130 degrees).  She originally won $2.86 million, but this number was dropped to $640,000.  (Read More Here)

Dunkin’ Donuts Lawsuit

The latest lawsuit is not over the temperature of the coffee, but rather a worker putting sugar into coffee.  Normally, this would be a simple correction, but the Philadelphia woman, Danielle Jordan,  was a diabetic.  The sugar in her coffee caused her to go into diabetic shock.  Her lawsuit claims that she asked for artificial sweetener to be added to her coffee, but instead was served coffee with real sugar.  She apparently could not tell from the taste of the coffee that she got sugar instead of artificial sweetener.  After drinking roughly half the cup of coffee she experienced dizziness, light-headedness and ended up making an emergency trip to the hospital.

Her lawyer has claimed that the resulting difficulties have deprived Jordan of “her usual customary duties, activities, avocations and occupations, to her great financial detriment and loss.”  Luckily for her, a security guard noticed her suffering and called paramedics, otherwise she could have been in real trouble.  Her lawsuit claims that Dunkin’ Donuts was negligent in allowing employees to add sweetener to coffee out of the customer’s presence (this is why most coffee places have an area where you can add your own milk or sweetener).

What do you think?  Should Jordan be able to sue over sugar in her coffee?  What is a fair judgment?  Do you think Jordan is partly responsible for not noticing before she drank half the cup of coffee?