The case was really about what is a reasonable temperature to serve coffee at. It was found that McDonald's, as a franchise, mandated coffee to be served at th

The case was really about what is a reasonable temperature to serve coffee at. It was found that McDonald's, as a franchise, mandated coffee to be served at this temperature, generally 20 degrees higher than the temperature of take-away coffee served at other establishments. This 20 degrees difference accounting for the difference between third degree burns within seconds and a significant chance at preventing the third degree burns. Liebeck's behaviour was of course risky, but even applying common sense, she could not have expected the coffee to be _this_ hot. McDonald's was also aware of the tendency of drivers to want to immediately drink the coffee after buying, yet continued to insist on serving at this extremely high temperature. McDonald's should have been the ones to apply some common sense and simply lower the mandated temperature.