Fan Sues Dallas Cowboys for 'Burned Buttocks.'

This was the headline for an article I just read on yahoo. I had high hopes that the article was spanking related, but alas, I was disappointed.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/fan-sues-cowboys-burned-buttocks-23 5557660--nfl.html

As a Giants' fan, I have little affection for the Cowboys' Jerry Jones (outside of Texas, who does?), but I'm not sure even I can blame him for this.Though I do think someone in this story deserves a spanking for a bit of stupidity, and I'm going with Ms. Carillo, who had these facts at her disposal: Dallas, in August, hot sunny day, black marble bench - yet still chose to sit down on said bench. Her attorney's argument that the Cowboys " "breached their duty of care by both failing to make the condition reasonably safe and by failing to adequately warn the plaintiff of the condition of the bench when exposed to the hot August sun" reminds me of the person who sued McDonalds some years back, because she spilled hot coffee on herself, and by gosh, she got burned! Though the McDonalds woman won her lawsuit, so maybe I'm the dummy here, and Ms. Carillo will win hers too.

One question: If one of the Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders burns my buttocks (as if!) can I sue?

Oh, btw, most of those readers who are outside the U.S. probably won't get many of the above references, but that's ok. It concerns American football, which is the one in which you CAN use your hands, as well as your feet. Carry on.

Sounds like a scam to me. How long would you have to sit on a hot bench to get third degree burns?I'd think it impossible. Most when they noticed the bench was too hot, would get right back up. And what was she wearing? Was she nude?
Reminds me of a cute story I read once about how a young woman avoided sitting on a hot car seat in the parking lot. She came out to the car and realized the seat was very hot from sitting in the baking parking lot. She was wearing a pair of very short shorts so her cheeks would have come in contact with the hot seat, very unpleasant.
She took out a package of frozen food she had bought , put it on the seat, and left it there a few minutes to cool the seat so she could sit comfortably. Clever!

The McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit has been modified over the years to turn it into a "stupid litigation" tale.

The employees of McDonald's are under written instruction never to put coffee into a microwave.

One server ignored the rule, and heated up cool coffee so that it was hot again.

The small solids floating inside the liquid became super heated. As soon as the woman took a small sip, her tongue was instantly blistered. She dropped the cup in shock, and seriously blistered her groin and thighs. It took several surgeries to repair all the damage.

McDonald's admitted total responsibility for the mis-hap, but went to trial in the hope that they would have to pay less than they had been asked for by way of an out-of-court settlement. The jury gave the woman much more than her attorneys had originally requested, which is possibly the only element of stupid litigation that applies to the account.

And after the settlement was upheld, MacDonalds negotiated it down to her medical and legal expenses. That is, all they paid was the amount she originally asked for and the costs of her lawsuit.

To quote:
"the parties settled out of court for an undisclosed amount less than $600,000."

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants
for a mostly neutral account of the lawsuit.

Goodgulf

While I agree that any semi-intelligent person would realize that the bench would be extremely hot and would check to see how hot, before they sat down, I can attest that it wouldn't take long to burn a body part by sitting on it in the hot Texas sun. A few years ago, i was visiting my niece in Dallas. I was walking 30 minutes a day. I would actually go out early in the morning, before 8 am, to walk. I had good walking shoes but had to wear 2 pairs of heavy socks to keep from burning the bottom of my feet. The tread on my shoes melted on the sidewalk, it was so hot.