Burned Sechelt woman’s suit against Starbucks dismissed
Claimed defective cup at fault in tea spill
VANCOUVER — A Sechelt woman has had her lawsuit dismissed against coffee giant Starbucks after claiming in part that a defective cup resulted in serious burns to her legs.
“Despite my sympathy for the claimant, who clearly suffered extremely painful burns, it is my judgment that she has not proven her case against the defendant,” provincial court Judge Steven Merrick concluded in his judgment. “Consequently, her claim is dismissed.”
According to the judgment, released this month, Shayla Williams said that while riding as a passenger in her mother’s vehicle, she placed an order for tea, a hot water and panini at the Starbucks drive-through at the Tsain Ko Mall in Sechelt.
After leaving the drivethrough, she said, they drove a short distance and then stopped. The lid popped off and the hot tea poured onto her, mainly hitting her left thigh and gluteal area, and causing second- and thirddegree burns. Williams was taken to hospital and treated for the burns.
Williams testified that she believed the lid popped off because the tea distorted the cup, causing it to become loose.
She also claimed that the distortion was caused by the high temperature of the tea inside, that the cup or lid was defective, that the lid wasn’t properly placed on the cup by the Starbucks employee and that the temperature of the tea was hotter than it should have been.
However, while Starbucks argued that its tea can be very hot, Merrick concluded that “there is no evidence to support the assertion that either the temperature of the tea caused the cup to distort or that the cup or lid were defective. Extremely hot beverages are served in these types of cups and lids on a daily basis without incident.”
Furthermore, Merrick noted, Starbucks argued that it was “more likely that Williams either dropped the cup or knocked off the lid as she was removing the seatbelt and/or trying to pick up her purse, open the car door and get out of the car while holding one or both drinks in her hands.”
Store manager Shannon Reid had told the court that water in the machine at Starbucks is heated to 200 degrees F and dispensed at 187 F. She said the temperature of the water is never above 200 F because the machine automatically shuts off once the water temperature reaches that temperature.
“Ms. Reid’s testimony was that the water temperature at the Sechelt’s Starbucks location was within the industry standard and in accordance with Starbucks manuals,” noted Merrick, adding that Williams failed to prove that the tea was too hot or the cup defective.