McDonald’s Hot Coffee Lawsuit, Yes, Another One

McDonald’s is once again on the wrong side of a hot coffee lawsuit. Francisco Rafael Borbolla filed the suit on Monday in Hackensack, New Jersey, saying that he suffered serious burns as a result of hot coffee spilled over his body during a visit to a Bergen County McDonald’s.

According to an NJ.com report, Borbolla was burned in August 2011 when McDonald’s restaurant workers gave him a breakfast cup of hot coffee without properly securing the lid.

As a result of the spill into his lap, he had to be treated at the Hackensack University Medical Center for second-degree burns.

North Jersey reporter Kibrot Markos said Borbolla’s attorney Rosemarie Arnold described the burns as horrendous.

The fast food chain hasn’t yet reported on the lawsuit, and they may not make a comment any time soon, because of the pending litigation.

However, McDonald’s does have a history with hot coffee lawsuits.

According to Chicago Business, in March 2012, McDonald’s was hit with two hot coffee lawsuits in the Chicago area that were filed on the very same day. Ouch.

In one case, a 4-year-old girl reportedly suffered second-degree burns that will leave lifelong scars. Her family was dining in the restaurant when she went to fetch the boiling hot coffee for herself — and ended up with the serious injury.

In the other case, a woman had coffee spilled on her after ordering it from a drive-through window. Although she was first burned in 2010, she was still undergoing treatment from the horrific burns at the time her attorney filed the suit in 2012.

And, of course, there’s that most famous McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit case — 1994’s Stella Liebeck Vs. McDonald’s Restaurants. After suffering severe third-degree burns from the spilled hot coffee that required skin grafts and years of treatment, she was awarded $2.86 million by a New Mexico jury.

A trial judge knocked down the award by a significant amount, and she eventually settled the hot coffee lawsuit with McDonald’s for a confidential sum.

[McDonald’s sign photo by Jason Patrick Ross / Shutterstock.com]