Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

A woman in New Jersey is suing Dunkin’ Donuts for burns she sustained after ordering a hot apple cider from the coffee retailer, and subsequently spilling it on herself.

The product liability suit was filed February 11 by Jennifer Fragoso. Fragoso alleges that Dunkin’ Donuts was negligent and breached it warranty to its customers by serving her a beverage that was excessively hot. According to the complaint, she had visited a Dunkin’ location in September of 2012 where she ordered a hot apple cider. Fragoso accused workers at the Belleville, N.J. location of improperly securing the lid, causing it to become dislodged and for the hot contents to spill into her lap. Fragoso suffered painful second-degree and third-degree burns and is now permanently scarred with full-thickness scars that will never heal, according to her lawyer.

Though the Canton, MA-based retailer has not formally commented on the matter, a spokeswoman for the Dunkin’ brand did say that all of Dunkin’ Donuts’ hot beverage cups come with a displayed warning reading: “CAUTION: THIS BEVERAGE IS EXTREMELY HOT.” Fragoso’s attorney said that while this warning label may provide the company the opportunity to argue that the purchaser mishandled the product, the fact remains that a person cannot sustain third-degree burns unless the beverage was excessively high.

Products liability lawsuits like Fragoso’s have become much more common since one of the first lawsuits of its type involving an elderly woman and a McDonald’s coffee came to fruition more than 20 years ago. The woman, like Fragoso, had ordered a hot beverage and been seriously burned after it spilled onto her lap. She sued McDonald’s to cover her related medical expenses however she was awarded $3 million in punitive damages when the case was brought to trial. Though the case became complex, the facts remained clear that McDonald’s did not willingly accept responsibility for their share in the incident, and according to jurors, did not seem to take the victim’s injuries seriously.
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In one of the biggest car seat recalls in history, Graco issued a recall last week of 3.8 million car safety seats over concerns that children may become trapped by buckles that may not unlatch.

The recall covers 11 models produced between 2009 and 2013 by Graco Children’s Products, Inc. of Atlanta. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this recall marks the fourth largest child seat recall in U.S. history. NHTSA said that in the event of an accident, such a problem with the buckle could cause difficulty in removing a child from the restraint, thereby increasing the risk for serious injury or death in the event of a motor vehicle crash, fire, or other type of emergency.

Though the company has already issued a voluntary recall for 11 models, the company is receiving backlash from many federal regulators, including NHTSA who allege Graco excluded seven rear-facing infant car seat models which have the same buckles, from their recall. Both Graco and NHTSA have received numerous complaints about stuck buckles on those infant seats. According to a letter written to Graco by NHTSA, some consumers have even had to resort to the “extreme measure” of cutting the harness straps to remove their child from the car seats. NHTSA asked Graco to identify the total number of seats that are potentially defective and explain why it chose to exclude infant seats from the recall. Graco estimated that only 1% of all child seats were affected by the issue.

One potential reason, according to statements by Graco, could be that food and beverages can make the harness buckles in the children’s seats sticky and therefore harder to unlatch over time. The statement continued, saying that rear-facing infant seats do not face that problem because infants don’t get food or drinks on their seats. Graco said that it will send replacement buckles to owners of infant seats upon request. The company also has issued cleaning tips for buckles, as well as issuing instructions on how to replace the buckles (including posting a video to its website) for customers who requested a replacement buckle for their child’s seat.

NHTSA said that parents should check seat buckles and contact Graco for a free replacement, and that people should in the meantime get another safety seat for their child until the seat is fixed by Graco. In addition to Graco seats, NHTSA has since last month, begun investigating four models of Evenflo child safety seats which have a design that is similar to the recalled Graco seats, and potentially uses buckles from the same manufacturer, AmSafe Commercial Products Inc. of Elkhart, Indiana.
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