Never has one cup of (exceedingly) hot coffee seemed to inspire so much legal frenzy as the one spilled by Stella Liebeck 19 years ago.

The then-79 year old woman burned herself with a 49-cent cup of hot McDonalds coffee. (Here's a Wiki recap of the famous case.)

In 1994, a jury awarded Liebeck about $3 million, most of it in punitive damages....