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1995 Det. C.L. Rev. 1207 (1995)
Linking Tort Reform to Fairness and Moral Values

handle is hein.journals/mslr1995 and id is 1217 raw text is: LINKING TORT REFORM TO FAIRNESS AND MORAL VALUES Kathleen E. Payne* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................ 1207 I. MODERN TORT LAW AND REFORM ............. 1211 A. History of Recent Tort Law ............... 1211 B. Tort Reform of Modem Tort Law ........... 1215 C. Common Sense Tort Reform of 1995 ......... 1224 II. THE No DUTY To AID RULE ................ 1236 III. THE PROPOSAL ........................... 1243 CONCLUSION ............................ 1245 INTRODUCTION You know the old saying, Don't cry over spilled milk. Well there certainly has been a lot of crying over spilled coffee in the last year, specifically scalding hot McDonald's coffee. The crying has been primarily by talk show hosts, journalists and politicians, a cry of outrage to reform the tort system, with Stella Liebeck's spilled coffee' as the flagship case. Reporting selective facts of a case may easily enrage the public. Take for example the voice-over introduction from CNN's news talkshow Crossfire: What's going on?... In recent days, there was a . . . $2.9-million award against McDonald's for a case involving a hot coffee spill by a drive-in customer.2 This narrative * Professor of Law, Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University. B.A. 1967, Michigan State University; M.A. 1970, Eastern Michigan University; J.D. 1977, Detroit College of Law; LL.M. 1981, University of Michigan. The author gratefully acknowledges the outstanding research assistance of Jody Sturtz. 1. Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, No. CV-930-2419, 1995 WL 360309 (N.M. Dist. 1994). The facts of the case as reported by numerous sources are as follows. On the morning of February 27, 1992, as a seated passenger in her grandson's parked car, 79-year- old Stella Liebeck placed a cup of McDonald's coffee between her knees to remove the lid. She took this action because the Ford Probe was not equipped with a cup holder and the dashboard was slanted. As she tugged to remove the lid, the scalding coffee spilled into her lap. Before her grandson could help her get out of the bucket seat, the 170 degree coffee had caused second and third-degree burns to her buttocks, thighs and labia. Mrs. Liebeck spent seven days in the hospital, three weeks recuperating at home, and then had to return to the hospital for skin grafts. The bums and the grafts were extremely painful. Are Lawyers Burning America? NEWSWEEK, Mar. 20, 1995, at 33. 2. Crossfire (CNN television broadcast, Sept. 2, 1994). The introduction also

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