LOS ANGELES (AP) — A supply driver has gained $50 million in a lawsuit after being severely burned when a Starbucks drink spilled in his lap at a California drive-through, courtroom data present.
A Los Angeles County jury discovered Friday for Michael Garcia, who underwent pores and skin grafts and different procedures on his genitals after a venti-sized tea drink spilled instants after he collected it on Feb. 8, 2020. He has suffered everlasting and life-changing disfigurement, in keeping with his attorneys.
Garcia’s negligence lawsuit blamed his accidents on Starbucks, saying that an worker didn’t wedge the scalding-hot tea firmly sufficient right into a takeout tray.
“This jury verdict is a important step in holding Starbucks accountable for flagrant disregard for buyer security and failure to just accept accountability,” certainly one of Garcia’s attorneys, Nick Rowley, stated in a press release.
Starbucks stated it sympathized with Garcia however deliberate to attraction.
“We disagree with the jury’s determination that we have been at fault for this incident and consider the damages awarded to be extreme,” the Seattle-based espresso big stated in a press release, including that it was “dedicated to the very best security requirements” in dealing with scorching drinks.
U.S. eateries have confronted lawsuits earlier than over buyer burns.
In a single well-known Nineteen Nineties case, a New Mexico jury awarded a lady practically $3 million in damages for burns she suffered whereas making an attempt to pry the lid off a cup of espresso at a McDonald’s drive-through. A choose later decreased the award, and the case finally was settled for an undisclosed sum below $600,000.
Juries have sided with eating places at occasions, as in one other Nineteen Nineties case involving a toddler who tipped a cup of McDonald’s espresso onto himself in Iowa.