Court Shorts Settlement for Scalded Starbucks Customer

Two years ago, a jury decided that Starbucks should pay $301,000 to a customer whose feet were scalded with a hot coffee at a Midtown location. However, an Appellate Court reduced the verdict to $75,000--and Alice Griffin and her lawyer are still steaming about Starbucks' behavior.

In 2004, Griffin was at a Midtown Starbucks when, as the Post describes it, a barista "pushed the loose-lidded cup toward Griffin"--"instead of simply placing the coffee on the counter, as per Starbucks policy"--and the cup was knocked over and 200-degree coffee was spilled on Griffin's foot. Griffin said her foot was "steaming" and claims permanent nerve damage from the second-degree burn that prevents her from her hobby of ballet dancing.

Starbucks issued a statement saying, "While Starbucks regrets any injury Ms. Griffin may have incurred, we did not believe we are responsible for her injury." Griffin said, "The point is we won," but added she wouldn't have sued if Starbucks "paid my medical bills and gave me [free] coffee for three years, it would never have come to this...In the end, I was so pissed off, I said, 'I'm going to go before my fellow New Yorkers and see what they think.'"

And here's Overlawyered, back in 2006, on the $301,000 judgment: "$301,000 for second-degree burns on a foot strikes me as high, but it’s within the realm of the law in New York."