Reference no: EM132386585
For Starbucks, it was an expensive cup of coffee - $100,000 to be exact.
In 2014, Florida resident Joanne Mogavero drove to a Starbucks shop in Jacksonville for a cup of coffee. She sued Starbucks after the beverage she bought spilled on her.
She claimed in a lawsuit that the lip popped off as a drive-thru barista handed it to her while she sat in her car. She alleged she suffered first and second-degree burns on her mid-section and faulted Starbucks for "failing to adequately" secure the lid on the Venti-size cup.
On Wednesday, a jury in Duval County circuit court concluded that Starbucks was mostly to blame for the accident and awarded the woman $100,000 in damages, including $85,000 for pain and suffering.
The damages don't approach the dollar figures initially awarded in the famous McDonald's hot-coffee case from the 1990s, but the plaintiff's lawyers cheered the outcome.
"My client didn't want sympathy from the jury - she wanted justice - and the jury gave it to her with their verdict," said Morgan & Morgan personal injury lawyer Steven Earle, who represented Ms. Mogavero. "It was good to see a just result."
QUESTIONS:
1. What are the facts of the lawsuit? Who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant?
2. How were damages assigned? How was fault or negligence assessed?
3. Why was negligence assigned to each of the parties? Why was the plaintiff awarded damages if the plaintiff was partially responsible for the harms?