The man awarded $ 50 million after the hot Starbucks tea causes permanent disfigurement

A California delivery driver received $ 50 million in damage, after a jury agreed that a Starbucks location was neglected in manipulating hot tea.

Michael Garcia sued the cafe chain after a tea spilled in a road and caused permanent disfigure to his penis. His lawyer Nick Rowley said in a press release that “Garcia’s life has been changed forever” by the accident.

“No amount of money can cancel the permanent catastrophic damage it has suffered, but this jury verdict is a critical step in holding Starbucks for a flagrant disregard for customer safety and not complying with responsibility,” Rowley said.

Starbucks said he intends to appeal, adding that “he has always been employed to the highest safety standards in our stores.”

“We sympathize with Mr. Garcia, but we do not agree with the decision of the jury that we have blamed for this incident and we believe that the damages to be excessive,” Starbucks said in a statement.

Garcia worked as a driver of the colleagues’ delivery on February 8, 2020, when she arrived at Starbucks in Los Angeles to pick up three teas of “Medicine Ball” Venti, according to her lawyers. I was handed a cardboard carrier with drinks in the lead, when a cup fell directly into the lap, and the top appeared one of the drinks.

The video provided by Rowley’s company shows Starbucks employees who prepare the drinks and when the tea flows into Garcia’s lap. Garcia’s lawyers claimed in court that the window employee failed to secure this drink in the carrier.

Garcia suffered third -degree burns at his penis, groin and inner thighs.

Rowley’s company said Garcia has two leather grafts at her penis at Grossman Burn Center and that any rubbing in the area causes Garcia pain.

The judicial case reminds of Infaming McDonald’s coffee process. In 1992, Stella Liebeck, 79 years old, suffered third -degree burns after a McDonald’s coffee was shed at the lap on a New Mexico road.

Liebeck’s case is sometimes criticized as a frivolous process, but the evidence at the trial showed that McDonald’s coffee was significantly warmer than that of Other restaurants. Conformable The American Cake MuseumAt least 700 other people had been burned before McDonald’s Coffee, yet the company It did not change its policy to keep their coffee between 180 and 190 degrees.

The 79-year-old initially asked McDonald’s to pay her medical bills and has taken action after the company refused, according to Journal of Consumer and Commercial Law.

Initially, $ 2.7 million was granted in punitive damages, but a judge reduced the jury verdict. Liebeck and McDonald settled for an undesirable amount.