- Kelly Coakley
Kelly Coakley, is a 23-year old paralegal from
Queens, New York . In 2006, Coakley filed a $114 million class-action law suit againstStarbucks for not honoring free drink coupons they had authorized.The Story
In August 2006,
Starbucks Coffee directed their baristas in the southeastern United States to e-mail a coupon for a free iced coffee to friends and family members.These e-mails were misused and were printed repeatedly, and spread across the United States.
After the e-mail spread to every corner of the country and was reproduced en masse,
Starbucks yanked the offer.This led customer Kelly Coakley, then a 23-year old
paralegal fromQueens ,New York to sueStarbucks . Kelly Coakley contacted her lawyer Peter Sullivan and they filed a $114 millionclass-action lawsuit againstStarbucks Inc.Sullivan, who says $114 million is a conservative amount, arrived at the figure by calculating the average cost of one cup of Starbucks coffee per day for everyone who was unable to cash in their coupon, times 38 days during which the coupon was valid.
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