Mable Childress tried to talk to the restaurant staff about the incident, according to the court filing, but none of them listened to her and they allegedly denied help. “She’s an elderly lady, and she was waiting for over an hour to speak to a manager, and a manager never spoke to her. They didn’t give her the time of day … Nobody helped her whatsoever. She had to get to the hospital herself,” her lawyer — Dylan Hackett — told SFGate. Childress now seeks millions in damages.
The restaurant’s owner, Peter Ou, maintains that his team did speak to Childress and tried to offer assistance. “My restaurants have strict food safety protocols in place, including training crew to ensure lids on hot beverages are secure,” McDonald’s shared on his behalf in a statement to Mashed. “We take every customer complaint seriously,” Ou also mentioned.
This isn’t the first time that McDonald’s has been burned by its hot offerings. Recently, the company paid $800,000 in damages after a four-year-old girl suffered second-degree burns on her leg due to an extraordinarily hot chicken nugget. In 1992, a woman was awarded a hefty sum in damages after she suffered burns when she accidentally spilled McDonald’s coffee on herself. Over the years, many people have sued the company over its excessively hot beverages. Currently, McDonald’s coffee is served at a temperature of around 185 degrees Fahrenheit.