About 30 years after a woman successfully sued McDonald’s for millions after she burned herself with a cup of hot coffee, and such… joint case study In tort law, another woman filed a similar lawsuit for coffee burn injuries.
Mable Childress, 85, said she suffered severe burns all over her body after buying the hot drink at a McDonald’s drive-thru window in San Francisco in June, according to a copy of her lawsuit filed earlier this month against was submitted to the fast food giant.
Childress was allegedly attempting to drink from the cup when the lid, which had not been properly secured by restaurant staff, came loose, resulting in severe burns. Photos provided to HuffPost through her attorney appear to show some discoloration and redness in the groin area.
“Mable is recovering from both her burns and her emotional distress,” her attorney Dylan Hackett said in an email to HuffPost on Wednesday.
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Childress tried to tell restaurant employees what happened and spoke to three employees, but all refused to help her, her lawsuit says.
Childress, “an elderly woman, continued to beg and wait for help, but the defendants ignored her and she eventually left to treat her wounds,” the lawsuit continues.
The restaurant’s owner, Peter Ou, denied that his staff refused to help her and said they offered immediate help.
“My restaurants have strict food safety protocols in place, including staff training to ensure hot beverage lids are secure,” he said in a statement shared with HuffPost. “We take every customer complaint seriously – and when Ms Childress told us about her experience later in the day, our staff and management team spoke to her within minutes and offered help.”
In her lawsuit, she accuses the restaurant of gross negligence and is seeking damages of more than $25,000.
Childress’ lawsuit is similar to one that was high-profilely filed back in 1994 generally rejected viewed as dubious by the public.
In that case, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck suffered third-degree burns from a cup of coffee, also purchased through a McDonald’s drive-thru window. Liebeck, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle at the time of the injury, was in the hospital for over a week and required a skin transplant.
A jury awarded her $160,000 in compensatory damages and nearly $3 million in punitive damages.
