You make a point, just as I do on field work type companies. Ceo's for the most part, I believe "skip ethics 101"
However; the true weight of dangerous education exists in DC and its lawyers. I however do understand its better than no law at all. The costs of this education is insurmountable in the over ten million word tax code and regs alone.
Just remember it takes highly educated person to reward a bimbo for spilling hot coffee on her privates. If I were the judge, id say; you would have been mad if it were cold case closed. Just examples of education at work
This comment is clearly an example of uneducated ignorance in action. Its the same thing that gets people injured or killed in the field around equipment, out on the shop floor, or because they don't possess the skills/knowledge from on the job experience or through formal education. The fact is, its as much your responsibility as it is your employers to be safe and complacency will get you killed as fast as inexperience.
If this had been your elderly mother you might have felt different. I'd bet you'd eat those words you wrote.
On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from
Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a 49-cent cup of
coffee from the
drive-through window of a local
McDonald's restaurant.Liebeck was in the passenger's seat of a 1989
Ford Probe owned by her grandson Chris, which did not have cup holders, and Chris parked the car so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. Liebeck placed the coffee cup between her knees and pulled the far side of the lid toward her to remove it. In the process, she spilled the entire cup of coffee on her lap.
[9] Liebeck was wearing
cotton sweatpants; they absorbed the coffee and held it against her skin,
scalding her
thighs,
buttocks, and
groin.
[ Liebeck was taken to the hospital, where it was determined that she had suffered third-degree burns on six percent of her skin and lesser burns over sixteen percent. She remained in the hospital for eight days while she underwent skin grafting. During this period, Liebeck lost 20 pounds (9 kg, nearly 20% of her body weight), reducing her to 83 pounds (38 kg). After the hospital stay, Liebeck needed care for 3 weeks, provided by her daughter.
[12] Liebeck suffered permanent disfigurement after the incident and was partially disabled for two years.
Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for $20,000 to cover her actual and anticipated expenses. Her past medical expenses were $10,500; her anticipated future medical expenses were approximately $2,500; and her daughter's
[12] loss of income was approximately $5,000 for a total of approximately $18,000.
[15] Instead, the company offered only $800. When McDonald's refused to raise its offer, Liebeck retained Texas attorney Reed Morgan. Morgan filed suit in New Mexico District Court accusing McDonald's of "
gross negligence" for selling coffee that was "unreasonably dangerous" and "defectively manufactured". McDonald's refused Morgan's offer to settle for $90,000. Morgan offered to settle for $300,000, and a mediator suggested $225,000 just before trial, but McDonald's refused these final pre-trial attempts to settle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants
