A delivery driver from California was awarded as much as $50 million (roughly Rs 433 crores) in damages after a jury found Starbucks negligent in handling scalding hot tea such that Michael Garcia filed a lawsuit against the coffee firm after spilling tea in his lap at a drive-thru, causing permanent disfigurement to his penis, reported The Guardian. The date of the incident was February 8, 2020.
In a statement, lawyers for Garcia stated that the event left him with a “permanently altered” life. In a statement on Instagram, his lawyers continued, “After hospitalization and multiple skin grafts, Michael has spent the last five years living with disfigurement, pain, dysfunction, and psychological wounds caused by the burns.”
According to his lawyers, Garcia was driving to people using the Postmates application on February 8, 2020, when he came to Starbucks in Los Angeles to collect three venti antigerm “medicine ball” teas. He received a cardboard carrier with the drinks at the drive-thru, but one of the cups fell in his lap, causing USA Today to report that the top of one drink came off.
Garcia is on the video broadcast by Sky News, painfully suffering as the drink pours down onto his lap.
Watch here:
The video accrued nearly four million views, making a flurry of responses. One of them reads: “Why is Starbucks or anyone else responsible for paying for this? I feel bad for him, but it’s no one’s fault but his own.” Another user wrote: “He dropped the drink on himself. This verdict will get overturned.”
“Why ?.. She had let go of the tray, he had it in his hands. It was then his responsibility.. Why pay out ???” Another user who reacted.
Starbucks is set to contest the judgment by maintaining that the company has constantly been upholding the highest safety standards at its stores. “We sympathize with Mr. Garcia, but we disagree with the jury’s decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive,” said Starbucks in an official statement, as quoted by NBC News.
Last April, a former employee at JP Morgan received $35 million-almost Rs 292 crore-as compensation, after a glass door in a building in New York City broke upon her. The incident took place in 2015 and resulted in permanent brain damage.
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