International coffee colossus Starbucks was ordered to pay $50 million to a delivery driver who suffered third-degree burns after an improperly secured hot drink spilled onto his crotch.
In 2020, Postmates driver Michael Garcia was picking up three large hot drinks made with steamed lemonade and tea at a drive-thru Starbucks in Los Angeles. One of the three drinks was loosely secured in a cardboard drink carrier, he said, and subsequently spilled.
Mr. Garcia wrote in his complaint against Starbucks that he “suffered severe burns, disfigurement, and debilitating nerve damage to his genitals,” according to Courthouse News Service. On Friday, a jury in Los Angeles County awarded him $50 million in damages.
Starbucks says they sympathize given the damage the spill caused to Mr. Garcia’s genitalia and the skin grafts he needed to get to heal, but plan to appeal the amount of damages awarded.
“We disagree with the jury’s decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive,” Starbucks said according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Garcia’s attorney Nick Crowley said of his injuries that “one of the most pleasurable experiences in life has been changed to pain. It’s an awful, awful injury,” and that Starbucks are “a bunch of idiots. They don’t have a chance in hell at getting this verdict reduced,” according to CNS.
Initially, Starbucks had offered Mr. Garcia $3 million before the trial, then offered $30 million to settle after it commenced.
Mr. Garcia said that he would agree if Starbucks apologized, changed its policies on securing drinks and issued a memo to stores to double-check hot drinks before handing them over to customers, but the nationwide chain declined according to KNBC-TV.
The case is not the first time a jury has awarded a plaintiff a large sum after they were burned by a national chain’s hot drinks. In 1992, Stella Liebeck, 79 at the time, was awarded $3 million (over $6.9 million in 2025 dollars) by a jury in New Mexico after she was burned trying to take the lid off a cup of McDonald’s coffee in the drive-thru lane according to the AP.
A judge would go on to reduce the amount awarded to Liebeck, and was later settled for less than $600,000 (over $1.3 million in 2025 dollars.)
