A woman burned by hot tea at a Starbucks has sued the chain, alleging negligence. This will no doubt bring back memories of the infamous McDondald's coffee case of years past, where a woman sued after spilling hot coffee into her lap that she had purchased in a drive-through window. In San Francisco, or anywhere in the Bay Area, I cannot go to court and select a jury without hearing about that McDonald's coffee case from many, many prospective jurors. That case really touched a nerve with the public. Since the new case against Starbucks happened in New York, I looked at the reader comments on the NY Daily News website. No surprise: 44 out of 44 comments were negative about the case.
I have no idea whether this Starbucks case has merit or not. In the McDonald's case, the woman who was burned was able to prove to the jury that McDonald's was keeping its coffee about 40-50 degrees hotter than the industry standard, and that McDonald's knew that this had caused severe burns in over 700 people on prior occasions. If the plaintiff in this Starbucks case cannot show that Starbucks was out of line with the industry standards, as McDonald's was, I predict this case will fall flat, as most people seem to think it should. Either way, the publicity from this NY case is likely to cause more people to be skeptical about San Francisco personal injury lawsuits.
Callaway & Wolf have handled many cases involving injuries at business premises, from defective food ingredients to slips and falls. Contact one of the personal injury lawyers at Callaway & Wolf if you would like a free evaluation of your case.
