70s Woman Scalded by Hot Black Tea
"Permanent, Serious Injury... Depressed and Tearful"
Company Denies: "Is She a Writer Fabricating Her Misfortune?"
A woman in her 70s in Canada has filed a lawsuit against the coffee chain 'Tim Hortons' seeking nearly 500 million won in damages. The woman claimed she suffered burns due to the cafe's negligence, but the company denied the allegations.
According to the British Guardian on the 20th (local time), Jackie Lansing (73), who lives in Ontario, Canada, recently filed a lawsuit demanding 500,000 Canadian dollars (approximately 478 million won) in compensation, claiming she suffered severe burns due to Tim Hortons' negligence.
According to Lansing's claim, she visited a Tim Hortons drive-thru store in southern Ontario last year. Sitting in the passenger seat of the car, she ordered hot black tea. After the ordered drink was handed to her, she picked up the cup, but the cup collapsed and the tea spilled.
Lansing stated, "About 14 ounces (396g) of hot liquid spilled on my abdomen and legs," and added, "The tea provided by Tim Hortons was dangerously hot to be called a beverage."
Lansing's attorney, Gavin Taig, pointed out that Tim Hortons was negligent regarding the temperature of the drink and the structure of the cup. He said, "What should have been an ordinary act of buying a cup of tea turned into an injury that changed Lansing's life in the blink of an eye," and "Lansing suffered physical and psychological damage."
Lansing claimed it took three weeks to recover from the injury, during which she needed morphine, a narcotic painkiller. She lamented, "I suffered permanent and severe injuries," and "I still feel scared, depressed, and tearful." She is currently suffering from persistent dermatitis requiring ongoing treatment and has experienced weight gain due to stress and other factors.
However, TDL Group, the licensing company of Tim Hortons, and Greenwood Enterprises, the franchise operator, denied the negligence allegations.
In a statement, the companies said, "Lansing assumed the risk when ordering a hot beverage, and when the tea spilled, she became a writer and fabricated her misfortune." They also claimed Lansing was distracted by her cellphone at the time of the accident and requested the court to dismiss Lansing's claims.
This is not the first case of a customer being harmed by a hot beverage. In 1994, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman living in New Mexico, USA, also sued McDonald's after spilling coffee and suffering third-degree burns that required surgery.
The jury found McDonald's negligent and ordered the company to pay $2.86 million (approximately 3.746 billion won). Of this, $160,000 was for medical expenses, while $2.7 million was punitive damages.
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