http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/443793p-373795c.html
A BAD EXPERIENCE at Starbucks turned into big bucks - 301,000 of them - for a Manhattan lawyer who got a painful hotfoot when a steaming cup of coffee toppled onto her at the java palace.
"I jumped back and looked down," Alice Griffin, 42, testified. "My foot was steaming, and the puddle was steaming."
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Griffin of the East Village got hurt when she stopped at the Starbucks on Seventh Ave. and 49th St. on her way to work Feb. 10, 2004, and ordered a large decaf.
She testified the clerk slid the sleeveless cup toward her, but it tipped off the edge, losing its top and fell on her foot - leaving her in agony.
Griffin testified the sneakers, socks and stockings she was wearing trapped the hot coffee on her skin.
She said the clerk said nothing - and simply gave her another cup of coffee.
Griffin's lawyer, Barney Anderson, said the clerk violated Starbucks' rules that require coffee cups to have sleeves and securely fastened lids, and that they never be handed to customers or slid on counters.
"It was kind of a perfect storm," that caused the decaf dump on Griffin, he said.
Griffin told the court the coffee caused second-degree burns and permanent nerve damage to the top of her foot.
She said she still suffers pain when she puts her foot in anything too hot or cold and can only wear certain kinds of shoes.