The alleged incident occurred January 12, 2012 after Carr had ordered coffee at the drive-through window of a McDonald’s on Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys. “The lid for the hot coffee was negligently, carelessly and improperly placed on the coffee cup … resulting in the lid coming off the top of the coffee at the window, causing the hot coffee to spill onto the plaintiff,” Carr said in the lawsuit.
Twenty years ago a similar lawsuit was filed against a McDonald’s restaurant in Albuquerque. In that case, the woman was originally awarded $2.9 million, which was later reduced to $640,000. The lawsuit was settled out of court. In this latest lawsuit, Carr seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The 1994 verdict not only attracted worldwide media attention, much of it negative, but was also widely criticized by advocates for legal reform. However, relatives of the woman injured in 1992 said the verdict was justified, noting the plaintiff had suffered third-degree burns that required skin graft surgery.