@Jeremie

Whoops, my mistake. I meant 140 degrees. 190 was for the gravy. ;)

McD's kept their coffee at 190, and that can give you severe burns in 2-5 seconds. And in a car, with a seatbelt, it takes much longer to squirm out of the way so the coffee isn't on your lap anymore...

so i have the game. I dont play it any more and I cant return it to eb or gs for a trade in. Do I keep it? OR Do I join the lawsuit and get some money?

@Jeremie

The reason the judge ruled in her favor wasn't because she was an idiot who deserved cash. It's because the coffee was WAY hotter than is safe. I used to work at one of McD's competitors, and we couldn't serve the coffee if the caraff was 190 degrees F or hotter. McD's was trying to make their coffee stay hot longer, by serving it insanely hot to begin with.

As others have pointed out, it wasn't that the coffee burned her, it's that it burned her much worse than a normal cup of fresh coffee, because they kept the caraff temp way too high. If they were worried about it cooling off, they should have used better insulated cups.

@Warren

That's a classic one (and has also probably happened, if not specifically with that title). But what I think would be better would be a superfundie seeing Bible Black, and thinking "it's a cartoon with bible in the title, it must be wholesome Christian entertainment for children!" (I don't think I should get into the specifics of Bible Black, which is a pity. It's the specifics that make the schadenfruede so delicious. But I'm sure you have a search engine handy and can check yourself...)

You'd be able to hear the resulting head explosion for miles.

They demand thier 50$ back, maybe extra money for haivng to go though all this. By suing for the return of purchass price, the game must (or should) be returned and destroyed. Of the 50$, give 40$ to the lawer for winning the case. Buy a new copy for 30$. Net loss of 20$, plus time. And that is if your lucky.

Honostly, what annoys me is I can see many of these people filing saying 'I want my money back! What, turn over the game to the defendant so they can destroy it? MY GAME!" If your suing the for the cost of the item, to be whole and not better, the item must be forgeighted. Many people will just want the money, I bet.

/
The box said “Strong Sexual Content” on it. Bring your reading glasses to the store next time, Grandma.
/

QFE!

@Black Manta:

Just remember that the old lady that sued McDonald's actually WON. So that may not be a really good analogy that Rockstar may want to have;)

Well, the McDonald's case wasn't really -that- ludicrous... The woman had severe burns and only sued because McD refused to pay her hospital bill after the incident. It just sounds very silly at first glance.

More info: http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm

@Chuma, @Karja:

And IIRC, wasn't the original judgement "1 day of revenue from coffee"? Doesn't sound unreasonable now, does it?

The problem is, what it takes to punish a multinational is huge, and draws vultures. There needs to be a way to punish them without inciting ambulance chasers to sue at the drop of a hat.

I wonder if I could get in on this suit? It warped my fragile little mind just as much as anyone else!

Um, last time I checked 14 was younger than 17.

So... Stealing cars, shooting up random civies, and picking up hookers is ok, but once you find a random clothed sex scene that can only be accessed by installing a mod off the internet, there's a problem?

How wonderfuly absurd!

People have missed the most interesting part of this story, unless by some chance the GP writers have made a mistake.

"An 86-year-old grandmother who purchased Grand Theft Auto San Andreas for her 14-year-old-son."

Please tell us more about this remarkable lady who became a mother at 72.

Clearly the ESRB is broken that they allowed this to happen. The system should be totally revamped so it includes a lower and upper age limit. GTA, rated 17-35 and anyone else plays at their own risk.

As for the coffee case, the lady wasn't driving, the car wasn't moving when it was spilt, and McD admitted in court that drinking coffee at the temp. they were serving it at would cause burns inside your mouth making it unfit for consuption as provided. This whole "coffee should be hot" ignores the fact that "coffee should be drinkable" and the state they were selling it in was undrinkable by definition of the people selling it.

Ah, the McDonald's case is mentioned again... IMO, they got what they deserved, especially since they had been warned several times (not to mention settled a lot of cases) in the past and did nothing to change it. Besides, it's not like they ended up losing that much money anyway and the case turned into nothing more than a joke to those who mention it since the media doesn't like to oh you know, research.

This woman's WHOLE reason for the case is because of her finding out about the whole Hot Coffee thing, even though her grandson didn't even access it or anything in that manner. The only real reasoning I can see in a judge letting this go forward with class action status is so that instead of it just being one defeat, which would allow others to spring up, this will kill all potential suits on the matter. Though, I can't see how T2 could or should lose this given she bought a game that was clearly marked that it may not be appropriate for his age.

the console versions did have it too, but you had to do 6+ hours of fiddling with devices such as gameshark and whatnot, thereby voiding any chance of a refund.

@niceaznguy721

True, the judge hasn't even finished the prelims yet, so when the FTC report is brought up, I believe the case will be dropped. Or at worst, they'll order an exchange.

Yeah, the code for HC was available in the PS2 version as well as the XBox verson (not sure if it was ever made available in the latter though) I remember the PS2 version originally had you alter your save file to access it but then later came the Gameshark/Action Replay/Codebreaker codes for it.

I always thought the whole Hot Coffee thing was blown way out of proportion. Because after all, anyone who saw Hot Coffee had both a desire to see sexual content and either really good technical skills and/or an internet connection. And anyone with possessing those can easily see content a LOT worse.

It's like if some popular childrens toy, if heated to 500 degrees, could then explode, possibly starting a fire. Does that make the toy a dangerous fire hazard? Because after all, any child that takes a blowtorch to the toy could accidently start a fire. And it's not as if children playing with blow torchs couldn't start a fire anyways, right?

Jabrwock said:
“Quick, someone sell this granny a copy of “Fritz the Cat”. It’s a cartoon, it must be ok…”

----------

LOL!

- Warren Lewis

There is no "hot coffe" its your basic external mod even with the data on the disc it still is completely hidden from all and you need external code to get to it.

hi i am loza i love gta

Not all cartoons are for children...I just wish company who show anime would know that before maliciously editing a show.

Also, this is just ridiculous. What kind of idiot is she? Buying a game clearly meant for a 17 year old, not a 14 year old...