Parents Sue Starbucks Over Child's Burn

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Fri Nov 17, 2006 6:20 pm

Nate says...

Parents sue Starbucks over child's burns

By Diana Penner

A Hancock County couple have filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, accusing a Fishers store of serving scalding hot chocolate that seriously burned their little girl.

Michael and Alexis Brennan filed the suit Tuesday in Marion Superior Court on behalf of their daughter, Rachel.

Rachel's age is not included in the lawsuit, but it says she was in a child restraint seat in the back seat of the family car Nov. 2, 2004, when Alexis Brennan went to the Starbucks at 116th Street and I-69.

Brennan ordered a child's hot chocolate with whipped cream and an adult hot chocolate without whipped cream at the drive-through. According to the lawsuit, Starbucks' policy is to serve child drinks at lower temperature than adult drinks to avoid kids getting burned.

Brennan handed her daughter the child drink, and as she pulled away from the window, it spilled into Rachel's lap.

The child was "screaming in pain," and her mother pulled over, got Rachel out and removed her clothes to find the "skin on Rachel's leg was falling off of her."

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Fri Nov 17, 2006 6:24 pm

Nate says...

The mother sounds kind of like an idiot to me. If you have a drink inside of a car, it tends to bounce around a lot. Give it to a toddler in a baby seat, and you're bound to get at least some spillage. But if the drink did cause skin to fall off, then it was definitely way too hot by any standard. Yet, then that calls into mind the mother's incompetence again. You can feel through the cardboard sleeve how hot the drink is. If it was that hot, then you'd be able to feel it before handing it to the child.

In any case, I feel bad for the child. Her mother should not be handing her drinks while in a babyseat in the car, and should definitely not be handing her drinks that are even the slightest bit hot.

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Sat Nov 18, 2006 1:43 am

Cassandra says...

I totally agree, Nate. I mean, why would you give a child a drink that's meant to be hot if you're bouncing around in a car, anyway? *rolls eyes*

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Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:36 am

Snoink says...

Yeah, but DUDE. Seriously, to have it so hot that the skin is peeling off of her? The mother definitely has a case against her.

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Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:48 am

Via says...

I agree as well. I can see where the mother is coming from, but I can also see how idiotic her actions were.

However, if Starbucks really does have a policy like this, then I think the mother has a very good chance of winning [as she probably could]. The court won't put the mother's incompetence on trail for this...much like the "I'm sueing McDonald's because their food made me fat" case...it doesn't really matter if common sense came into play or not.

Sad sad.

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Sat Nov 18, 2006 5:05 am

Black Ghost says...

Stupidity all around us. :roll:

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Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:21 pm

Teeeeo. says...

I just found it weird at the bottom of the article, it cites a 1994 incident where a woman won from filing a lawsuit against McDonald's for burning coffee... The statement seems a bit out of place...

I think it's double-sided here.

The mother shouldn't serve hot drinks to a child without direct supervision and especially not in a moving vehicle, but it burned the skin off the daughter?
And then an official later says the employees prepared it right... Uhh... Last time I drank a burning hot drink that scalded the skin off my body, it was made wrong -_-

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Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:03 am

sabradan says...

Ah, America. Land of the Frivolous Litigation.

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Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:43 am

Nate says...

To be fair, I do think the parents have a case here. The mother was an idiot, but any good court wouldn't consider that. Plus, it'd look bad for Starbucks to try to argue that someone was a bad mother.

Ya know, if I ever had the chance to sue Starbucks, I think I'd settle for free coffee for life. That'd be awesome.

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Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:09 am

Snoink says...

Meh. I don't like coffee, so that would never do! But some of those pastries... *drools*

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Mon Nov 20, 2006 8:10 am

Griffinkeeper says...

"skin on Rachel's leg was falling off of her."

That, my friends, is an instant third degree burn. A first degree will fry skin cells, a second degree will form blisters, a third degree will effectively turn the skin into ash. That hurts badly.

A little girl gets a third degree burn, that's a trip to the hospital.

What Starbucks needs to do is to prove that A) it's hot chocolate wasn't hotter than the product was advertised to be, B) that warning labels were clearly displayed, thus warning the mother of the high heat of the beverages and C) that the Mother had full control over the beverages.

Things to keep in mind: younger children and older people have more sensitive skin than adults, making them less resistant to heat.

Where it may take twenty seconds for you to develop a third degree burn at one temperature, it may only take eight at a temperature thirty degrees higher.

In a child resistant seat, with hot chocolate all over you, the effect would probably be very quick indeed.

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