Starbucks Sued For Serving Customer Tea That Was ‘Too Hot’
May 10th, 2010 at 7:02An American woman has filed a lawsuit against coffee giants Starbucks over claims she suffered second degree burns after being served tea that was too hot. The woman was served the tea which was “unreasonably hot, in containers which were not safe” in a Manhattan branch of the chain.
Zeynap Inanli, of New York, aims to sue the corporation for unspecified damages after it is claimed she suffered “great physical and mental anguish” which included the burns. Her lawyer stated she had not been able to observe warnings on the container of the drink due to her lacking skills in English.
Starbucks, who are no strangers to this kind of allegation, refused to comment. The cups in question have two warning signs on the sides and a third on the lid along with design measures to ensure any hot liquid cannot spill out accidentally.
The case echo’s a case in 1994 when a jury ordered McDonald’s to pay nearly $3m to an Albuquerque woman who claimed she had scalded herself with the restaurant’s coffee. The parties settled out of court but it paved a way for those looking to seek compensation against large corporations for hot drinks accidents.
This is the third major lawsuit facing Starbucks in the last twelve months and could do further harm to their reputation. Last year singer-songwriter Carly Simon signed to Starbucks own record label but her album failed to sell; she attempted to sue Starbucks for ‘loss of earnings’ claiming her album was not even promoted, the case was thrown out of court.
At the beginning of this year, Starbucks was at the centre of a vicious battle to ban gun carriers in Denver to openly carry firearms inside businesses. Colorado law states that civilians can openly carry firearms with a licence but many city centre business forbid the carrying of weapons indoors. Starbucks decided to allow their customers to observe the 2nd amendment but risked losing the faith of at least on side of the argument, they claimed they were trying to cater for customers while observing local law but it has dragged them into the centre of a dispute between gun control activists and gun advocates.
Starbucks have consulted health and safety experts in order to prevent liability over their printed paper cups and paper cup lids and their warnings are written in several languages and shown in a visual form, legal experts suspect the case will be thrown out of court.
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