3 Lawsuits That Revolve Around Coffee

This is a guest post by Charles Borromeo. Learn more about how you can guest post for Daily Shot Of Coffee.

Besides providing the much needed boost in the morning, coffee has also been featured in the court in some famous cases. Although some people may not remember them presently they were very much publicized in their days and some even now. Let’s have a look at them.

Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurant’s

This case is more commonly known as the McDonald’s coffee case or the hot coffee lawsuit and took place in 1994. Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman suffered from third degree burn after coffee purchased at a local McDonald restaurant accidentally spilled on her. She sued McDonald for being negligent for serving coffee at a high temperature (82–88 °C) and also selling a product that was “defectively manufactured”. In the end the court decided that McDonald should have to pay $2.86 million to Mrs Liebeck but this amount was eventually reduced by a trial judge and both parties later settled for a confidential out-of-court amount.

Russell Christoff

Russel Christoff, a model and actor found his picture on a jar of Taster’s Choice instant coffee without being informed by Nestle. Christoff was paid $250 for a picture of him drinking a cup of coffee and was promised $2000 if ever the picture was used on a coffee brick. However Nestle failed to inform and pay Christoff this amount and instead make use of the picture on 8 Taster’s Choice labels in 18 countries. The trial court jury awarded $15.6 million to Christoff but the State Court of Appeal reversed the decision.

Nestle and Sara Lee

Last year Nestle sued Sara Lee over a patent infringement pertaining to its coffee capsule. The Swiss firm follows the sales of coffee capsules in France by Sara Lee that is compatible with its Nespresso single-serving coffee machines. On the other hand Sara Lee argues that its products are “complies with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.” Indeed the Nespresso range is thought to bring in $3bn to the Swiss giant and it is not surprising why they are prepared to fight for this.

There are more legal cases that involve coffee but these three are perhaps the most famous ones. Given the popularity of coffee we are sure to find some more intriguing cases in the future.

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Charles Borromeo is the writer behind Justice-Explained.com, a site devoted to explaining Legal questions in layman’s terms. He is also a passionate blogger during his free time.

Photo by Dave77459.

Category: Coffee Information