That's a shame. And also on appeal, the judgement was tamped down. What is the system working here is that the woman got her medical bills paid for, and in a country where medical bankruptcy is a routine thing, that's really important.
There are good reasons for the industry standard high holding and service temperatures. I can tell when coffee has been sitting at temperatures that are too low.
I'm glad Stella got her bills paid, but no, that's not how the system is working. Successful hot coffee lawsuits are extremely rare. I'm aware of only a couple successful payouts in case alleging only excessive temperature. The only two "hot-coffee" lawsuits I know of in the past couple of years both involve defective lids and insufficient warnings.
