The famous McDonald's coffee incident is always mentioned when there's a discussion about frivolous tort activities; however, the commentators seldom really take the time to acquaint themselves with the case.

This was not a frivolous tort action.

In those days, McDonald's corporate standards called for coffee to be prepared with the water at a temperature that was absolutely dangerously high; however, any coffee drinker will tell you that the water needs to be quite hot to extract the best flavour.

In the McDonald's case, the desperately scalding hot coffee was spilled into the lap of an elderly passenger who could not react quickly enough, and she received second and third degree burns.

We forget that these cases are decided by jurors and judges who are fully empowered to use their common sense in civil tort actions, and in this case their common sense told them that McDonald's really should have known that there is no safe way to handle that kind of drink in an automobile.

Almost all restaurants that allow coffee "to go" will no longer prepare it at the high temperatures that gourmet coffee drinkers demand.