A 43-year-old woman in Duval County, Florida, has finally been awarded a $100,000 damage for a hot coffee burns she suffered in July 2014. Joanne Mogavero, suffered first- and second-degree burns when a Starbucks coffee she ordered spilled with a 190-degree beverage on her lap.
Mogavero had ordered for the coffee at a drive-through window in Jacksonville when the coffee cup’s lid came off and spilled its scalding content onto her lap. According to Mogavero’s lawyers, the lid of the venti-sized Pike Place coffee cup “was either not attached properly or was defective.”
The jury ordered Starbucks to pay Mogavero $100,000 for negligence for the lid popping off their coffee cup. A staff of Starbucks reportedly disclosed that about 80 customers complain every month of coffee cups’ lids coming off and spilling content. Mogavero’s lawyers stated that it would be necessary for the company to place a warning label on their cups and also warn potential customers in other ways that their coffee lids have a tendency of popping off.
Mogavero, a mother of three, was on Thursday awarded $85,000 for the pain she suffered after the hot coffee spill, and the resultant scarring and disfigurement of her legs as well as her “loss of capacity for enjoyment of life,"den Huffington Post reported. The complainant was also awarded an additional $15,492.14 to cover medical expenses for her hospital treatment.
Mogavero’s lawyers were impressed with the jury’s ruling. “My client didn’t want sympathy from the jury – she wanted justice – and the jury gave it to her with its verdict,” Steve Earle, one of her lawyers stated.
It is not clear whether Starbucks would appeal the decision but it could not be immediately reached for response on the verdict.