McDonald's is in hot water again after a Florida man filed a lawsuit Monday, claiming he suffered serious burns from a spilled cup of hot coffee while dining at a McDonald's restaurant in Bergen County, according to a report on NorthJersey.com.
Francisco Rafael Borbolla, 54, said he was burned in August 2011 when McDonald's restaurant workers gave him a breakfast cup of hot coffee without properly securing the lid.
The report goes on to say the coffee spilled in Borbolla's lap and he was treated in Hackensack University Medical Center's emergency room for second-degree burns.
According to the report, Borbolla's attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, said the coffee spilled all over Borbolla's lap and resulted in "horrendous" damage.
"This is a serious case involving lack of due care on the part of McDonald's," she said. "If the naysayers saw the burns on my client's genitals, they would be speechless."
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Superior Court in Hackensack, seeks an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages.
This is not the first time McDonald's coffee inspired a lawsuit. Stella Liebeck filed a similar lawsuit in New Mexico nearly two decades ago, alleging that she suffered burns after she accidentally spilled hot coffee that she had bought from McDonald's.
A jury later awarded her more than $2.8 million, most of it in punitive damages. The award was reduced on appeal, but the case triggered a national debate on tort reform and frivolous litigation, and was the subject of an HBO documentary in 2011.
