Mountains out of mole hills.?
 

Why do people make mountains out of mole hills?

Like the lady who sued, and won, mcdonalds because she got clumsy and burnt herself?

Or my bil who yells at the kids when they don't wipe the table the exact way he would like?

Where do we draw the line?

Actually...
 

I think I remember that McDonald's appealed and won...

But yeah, mountains out of mole hill's. Perhaps their bored? Or passive aggressive? I'm going with bored ;).

I'm going with emotionally unbalanced. Or they don't know how to deal with very minor stress. My sister freaks out on the little things so often I don't talk to her anymore.

McDonalds did not appeal and win...the issue was settled privately post-court. And (WARNING - SOAPBOX!!) that woman had one heck of a case. This is one of the most misunderstood cases presented in pop culture, easily. People hear about it anecdotally, draw conclusions without researching the case, and slam that poor woman. Can you imagine living the rest of your life knowing that, when people think of "unreasonable lawsuit", your name/case comes up?

Selected facts of that case, that were the basis for her win:

A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonalds
refused.

McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks.

Plaintiffs' expert, a scholar in thermodynamics applied to human skin burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony
showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus, if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn.

You can read full facts of the case here:

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

Based mainly on learning about this case, I often wonder now when I hear a story about someone being unreasonable, how slanted the presentation is. A media report, or a cultural/popular anecdote, rarely tells the whole story!

Rant over.

I was coming in to post what Amanda said. McDonalds knew their coffee was too hot for safety and didn't lower the temperature. An elderly woman in a passenger seat was terribly terribly burned. She didn't try to "soak" the big corporation with deep pockets for millions, she just wanted her doctor bills paid! Poor lady.

*Edit* heh simulpost :)

AGREED. I hate when folks cite this case as a friviolous suit.


as to the OP

depends

as to your BIL that sounds OCD to me... so i'll vote for mentally unstable.

Just like one person's trash is another person's treasure,
one person's mole hill is another person's mountain.

:)

DDC, I like that!

In my experience, people make a big deal out of things that are really important to them, for whatever reason. It may not be (in fact, it almost never IS) what is important to ME, but it must be to them for reasons I may not know about.

I dunno about McDonald's coffee...but mine usually starts out at roughly 190 degrees...

OK, OK, so I used a bad case! and DDC I do like that quote.

but you have to admit sometimes people do make a mountain out of mole hills. And I guess by starting this thread I was guilty myself! :)

I think some people just thrive on drama, which is why they do it.

Thanks, I made it up on the fly--I'm usually not that quick thinking.
I figured I was the prompt for this thread with my previous teacher thread.

to be honest, it was tied with yours and txschicks... guess I had just had enough.

Please accept my apology. I was trying to just start a light thread about people crying over spilled milk, and it backfired! :lol: