As a Vero Beach, FL personal injury lawyer who has been rated by Super Lawyers can share, a jury in California recently awarded a $50 million verdict to delivery driver Michael Garcia.
Many people scoff when they hear about a headline like this. They assume it is a frivolous lawsuit, and the amount awarded is somehow inflated. What could a sum like $50 million even be based on?
In this instance, Mr. Garcia was severely burned at a Starbucks. Working as a delivery driver for a popular food delivery app, Mr. Garcia was picking up three hot beverages that were placed into a carrier and handed to him by a barista through the drive thru window.
One of the beverage lids was not properly secured and video shows the popular hot tea concoction known as a “medicine ball” ended up in Mr. Garcia’s lap within seconds of taking hold of the tray with the lid coming off entirely. According to his lawyers, Mr. Garcia suffered “severe burns, disfigurement, and debilitating nerve damage to his genitals”. Third degree burns to his inner thigh, groin, and penis, resulted in multiple skin graft procedures.
Starbucks offered Mr. Garcia several million dollars to settle this case prior to trial. Mr. Garcia and his legal team did not accept the offer and proceeded with a jury trial. Based on all the information they received specific to this case, including testimony from experts, the jury awarded Mr. Garcia a $50 million verdict.
Starbucks announced they planned to appeal that verdict. A company representative stated, “We sympathize with Mr. Garcia, but we disagree with the jury’s decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive. We have always been committed to the highest safety standards in our stores, including the handling of hot drinks.”
If you or someone you love has ever been injured in an accident, you know firsthand that a serious injury is much more than just a headline. An accident or injury can be devastating and potentially impact every facet of life. There are many complex factors to consider in any personal injury recovery such as how an insurance company will handle the claim.
Mr. Garcia suffered severe burns, but there is so much more to assess when it comes to seeking compensation. Damages are money paid to plaintiffs to compensate them for their injuries. They can take the form of monetary losses, non-monetary losses, and punitive damages. In this case, Mr. Garcia was awarded several types of damages for physical pain, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, humiliation, inconvenience, grief, disfigurement, physical impairment, anxiety and emotional distress, according to a recording of the verdict from Courtroom View Network.
Monetary losses include things like medical bills, lost wages, and replacing damaged property. Let’s drill down here a moment: medical bills sound like a simple, straightforward category of damages, right? You might think calculating compensation for medical bills is as simple as tallying up any bills you’ve received in the past as a result of an accident or injury and getting reimbursed. However, there is much more to consider.
An experienced personal injury attorney will assess all the angles when it comes to seeking compensation for medical expenses.
What about the future?
What, as a result of this injury, might someone need in 5 years? 15 years? 50 years? What ongoing treatments, medical supplies or devices, or procedures like surgeries will be required, and what is a reasonable cost to estimate those future medical costs? Answering these questions about personal injury law as it relates to things such as premises liability or product liability may require the expertise of several types of medical professionals and specialists who can help assess these needs based on their experience.
The personal injury attorney at the helm is tasked not only with ensuring all the angles are considered and accounted for, but also must seek out qualified experts in their respective fields to provide the necessary data. Medical bills are just one sub-category of the three types of damages.
When it comes to personal injury, no two cases are identical. Mr. Garcia was 25 years old at the time he sustained the injury back in February of 2020. His age, activity level, lifestyle, occupation, capacity for future earnings, marital status and an array of other factors all play a role in the compensation he received. Non-monetary losses take into account things like pain and suffering. Injuries can result in emotional distress, humiliation, fear, anxiety, and more.
Mr. Garcia’s case is not the first that made headlines and revolved around a piping hot beverage. In some ways, this case is reminiscent of Liebeck V. McDonald’s Restaurants. This infamous case was late night tv fodder for weeks and even had a documentary made about it.
The facts of the case were often misrepresented in popular media, the headlines surrounding the case misleading and reductionist. Many joked about how a woman “made millions” when common sense should have told her the hot coffee she ordered would be hot. How could this woman sue for spilling hot coffee on herself?
In this matter, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman purchased a .49 hot coffee from McDonald’s drive thru. Her grandson was driving a vehicle that she was a passenger in as they visited the McDonald’s drive thru. The coffee, later determined to have been prepared at a temperature of 180-190 degrees, spilled in her lap while she was adding cream and sugar to it.
She suffered third degree burns through her sweatpants and underwent multiple skin grafting treatments. She was rendered partially disabled for two years.
Initially, Ms. Liebeck offered to settle the case with McDonald’s for $20,000. McDonald’s refused, offering $800, a sum that did not even cover her medical expenses. She also asked the company to reduce the temperature of its hot coffee to prevent others from being injured in the future. The case wound up in a New Mexico court in 1994 after attempts to settle were unsuccessful.
Permanent injuries cannot simply be undone or reversed. So, how do you compensate an injured person fairly? How do you endeavor to make them whole for what they have endured? Compensatory damages are design to help place a dollar amount on a plaintiff’s injuries.
In this case, the jury awarded Stella Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages, or damages intended to make her physically and emotionally whole. The jury did assign some responsibility to Ms. Liebeck in this matter. Specifically, they found her to be 20% responsible for the incident, so her compensatory damages award was reduced to $160,000.
The jury also awarded her $2.7 million dollars in punitive damages. Punitive damages are not intended to compensate the victim. As the name indicates, they are intended to “punish” the defendant when their conduct has been deemed especially reckless or outrageous. Why was McDonald’s subject to punitive damages in this case? At the time of the case, the industry standard for serving hot coffee was deemed to be 135-150 degrees.
Throughout the testimony and exhibits presented during the trial, the jury became aware of some 700+ people of all ages had been burned by McDonald’s coffee which was being served some 30 to 40 degrees hotter than other industry contemporaries. One of Ms. Leibick’s legal representatives demonstrated that McDonald’s required franchisees to serve the coffee at this temperature intentionally. The trial judge called McDonald’s actions “willful, wanton, and reckless”.
The judge ultimately also reduced the amount of punitive damages down to $480,000. As for “making millions”, though this case went to trial, it was ultimately settled for an undisclosed amount, many speculating that it was for less than $500,000.
Mr. Garcia and Ms. Liebeck remind us that just as no two people are the same, no two personal injury cases are identical. There are a number of complex factors to consider when it comes to pursuing a personal injury claim. A personal injury attorney helps advocate on behalf of their clients to get the compensation they are entitled to based on assessing the complete picture. The “headline” doesn’t tell the entire story.
When a person is injured, sometimes the at fault party or other companies involved try to hastily settle. An attorney is responsible not only for legal strategy, but for assembling all the resources required to get the best possible outcome for the client based on their unique situation. When you are seriously injured, having an expert personal injury attorney in your corner can make all the difference. A good personal injury attorney will make the complex nuances of the legal process less intimidating and as easy to understand as possible so you can focus on your recovery.
They help assess all the complex angles of a case to ensure all compensation you may be entitled to receive is pursued. Just as there are different phases of medical treatment you receive when dealing with an accident or injury, there are different phases within the legal process. Your attorney should provide you with a clear overview of what to expect and keep you informed at every step throughout the process.
Whether a case settled or is tried before a jury, the goal of the personal injury attorney should always be to get the best results for the client based on their unique circumstances. Tuttle Larsen Injury Attorneys is a personal injury law firm in Vero Beach, FL. Attorneys Jesse H. Larsen, Douglas Tuttle, and Jon Jacob Ashenback have 50 years of combined legal experience. They offer a no-obligation free consultation. Services areas include: Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Sebastian, Indian River Harbor, Malabar, Gifford, Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie County, Indian River County, the Treasure Coast.
This blog posts contains personal opinions. The author is an employee of Tuttle Larsen Injury Attorneys She holds a Masters Degree in business administration.
