Posted on 05/23/2014 12:58:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A University of California at Berkeley graduate sued the fast food chain In-N-Out Burger Thursday over injuries suffered when she was badly burned by a spilled cup of hot coffee last year and an employee allegedly refused to call for an ambulance.
The lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court by Hedy Chen is based on legal claims of negligence and failure to come to her aid.
Chen, who graduated from UC last year, says in the lawsuit that the incident happened when she and a friend stopped an In-N-Out drive-through restaurant in Oakland on April 1, 2013.
The lawsuit says she ordered a cup of coffee and that an employee handed her an "excessively hot" beverage in a paper cup without a protective sleeve. The cup was so hot that Chen could not hold it and she dropped it onto her abdomen and thighs, which caused her to suffer excruciating pain, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit alleges she asked the employee to call 911, but the worker refused, purportedly saying that she was forbidden to do so because it was against company policy to call 911.
Police Looking For Shotgun Bandit with Mohawk Haircut Chen claims the employee then gave her a bag of ice, which, according to the lawsuit, is a poor treatment for burns and can exacerbate scarring.
Chen sustained first- and second-degree burns, spent three days in a hospital and has permanent scars, according to the lawsuit.
"It's amazing that they would refuse to call 911, and then give her ice treatment which makes it worse," Chen's lawyer, Kirk Boyd, said in a statement.
The lawsuit asks for financial compensation for the injuries in an amount to be determined by a jury.
Woman in Coma Gives Birth to Healthy Baby Boy Arnie Wensinger, an executive vice president for the Irvine-based In-N-Out Burgers declined to comment on the lawsuit, but noted that "all In-N-Out Burger Associates are authorized to assist our customers and to call 911 in emergency situations."
In-N-Out operates in California and the southwestern United States.
if what your saying is true, then, knowing inandout, the employee in question was trained exactly on that. inandout is a class organization, top to bottom. in my experience, they sweat the smallest stuff; they wouldn’t over look that big a detail.
I was in the very good Music Department.
“Second and third degree burns” is not the same as first and second degree. Second degree burns are to the stage of blistering, and I just can’t see three days in the hospital for that, not for the area that could be scalded by a single cup of coffee.
Sorry about your friend, and I hope he recovered completely. I always thought scalds from liquids were about the most painful burns, except maybe steam burns.
No, why would I? It was a completely different case from the In-and-Out thing, so I’m not going to Google pictures of that or any other burn injuries. I’m not contesting the fact that it is possible to get severely burned by hot coffee, just questioning whether second degree burns over a limited area rate three days in the hospital.
The cool thing about Berkeley is - they don’t make you sign a ‘statement of faith’ - i.e. that you have to be a lib just because there are a lot of those that make the news these days. Otherwise it would just be guilt by association, wouldn’t it?
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