An elderly woman in her 80s has sued a San Francisco McDonald’s after she sustained “severe burns” from a hot cup of spilled coffee. Mable Childress filed her lawsuit to the San Francisco Superior Court on Sept. 14, per court documents obtained by NBC News. In it, Childress claimed the McDonald’s employees failed to secure her coffee cup lid that she purchased from a drive-thru, thus breaching their “duty of care.” Childress explained that the cup lid came off while she drank her coffee and that “scalding coffee poured out of the cup,” causing severe burns and scars to her groin.
The incident took place earlier this year in San Francisco, the lawsuit specified. Childress said the spilled coffee caused her to suffer severe burns, scarring, emotional distress, along with hospital and medical expenses. She continued, saying she tried to report the incident to three employees at the McDonald’s location, including managers. However, the employees “ignored” and “refused to help her” until she sought treatment on her own.
This isn’t the first time McDonald’s has been sued over spilled coffee. In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck sued a New Mexico-based McDonald’s after suffering from third-degree burns in her pelvic region when she accidentally spilled hot coffee in her lap. The highly publicized case, called Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants, awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages.
Joy Saha
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