Ex.37 Work in groups. Read the information below and decide how much money the woman should receive.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 474.

Speaking

A woman went to a fast-food restaurant and bought a cup of coffee. She placed the cup between her knees and as she was taking the lid off the cup of coffee to add cream and sugar, she spilled the coffee, which burned her legs. She decided to sue the company that owned the restaurant and she found a lawyer who agreed to help her.

• Compare your ideas with other groups and explain your reasons.
• Now read the following information. Does it change your opinion? Do you think the court's decision was fair? Why/why not?

This was not the first time that the company had received complaints about their hot coffee. Company documents showed that they had received at least 700 complaints in the previous ten years. In some of these cases, the company had made a settlement with the plaintiff before the case went to court. In one case (of a woman who suffered similar burns), the company paid $230,000.

The restaurant's coffee was served at 82.2°C, which is more than 10% hotter than some other restaurants. According to one of the company's executives, the company knew that the coffee sometimes caused serious burns. However, the company had decided not to warn customers about the danger and did not plan to change the way it served coffee.

A few days before the case began in court, the judge asked the company and the woman's lawyer to come to a meeting. At the meeting, the judge said that he thought the restaurant should pay $225,000. However, the company continued to deny responsibility, arguing that the woman should not have put the coffee between her legs and claimed that her injuries were more serious because she was old.

The woman was 79 years old and the burns were extremely serious, She needed to spend seven days in hospital. Apparently, she only decided to sue the company when they refused to pay $800 for her medical bills.

After seven days of listening to the evidence, the jury decided that the restaurant was responsible. The jury decided that the company should pay $160,000 in compensatory damages and an additional $2.7 million in punitive damages. The trial judge later reduced the amount of punitive damages to $480,000.