Agree with the temperature, not the other. Cars had/have cupholders, or if they didn't you could very easily purchase one in several models/styles. My parents did this with their cars, as my Dad had to have a cupholder for his Coca Cola bottles. She was a passenger in her grandson's car, a Ford Probe, which didn't have cupholders. She put it between her legs to put in cream and sugar. Putting a collapsible styrofoam/cardboard cup with no lid between the legs. What could go wrong? Even if the coffee wasn't as hot as it was, she would have still gotten burns. Not as severe, but burns nonetheless.
The jury found that the warning was not large enough or sufficient to inform customers of the serious burn risks associated with the hot coffee. Yes, she was a 79 year old Grandmother, and her grandson didn't have the consideration to put a cupholder in his car for her. I'm sorry, but commonsense dictates that if you stick something hot between your legs with no lid on it, you run the risk of getting burned. Common. Sense. The cups had warnings on them. She did a "risk assessment" and determined that the "risk" was acceptable in the name of convenience and time saving. She accepted the risk, and reaped the consequences. And put the blame of her lack of basic intelligence on a corporation and got paid very handsomely for it. Of course, she was only asking for $20,000 and McDonalds decided to take it to court and lost. That is on them, and they deserve the judgement. But this doesn't excuse her culpability in this.
This is the reason for warning labels on electrical appliances warning against using in/around water. This is the reason for instructions on milk cartons on how to open them. This is the reason for the warning labels on lawnmowers to not stick your hands/feet under them while running. People like this are the reason for all the warning labels, or as I like to call them "Darwin labels", on every single product, industrial machinery, basically everything in our lives. We should just let natural selection run its course.
