A jury in Texas has sided with a woman who filed a lawsuit after being burned by BBQ sauce and ordered the Texas restaurant chain to pay $2.8 million.
In October 2023, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises was sued by Genesis Monita, 19, after she suffered a second-degree burn after having been served scalding BBQ sauce alongside her breakfast tacos.
“Completely ridiculous those types of rulings really need to be addressed by the Congress and by the Supreme court. It sets a terrible precedent!” one user posted on social media platform, X.
The incident, which occurred in May 2023, harkens back to the infamous McDonald’s coffee lawsuit over three decades prior. In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck spilled hot coffee on her lap she received at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Albuquerque. Although she initially offered to settle with the fast food chain for $20,000, McDonald’s refused. She eventually won the lawsuit and was awarded nearly $3 million in punitive damages for the burns she suffered.
Like the one in New Mexico, the incident in Texas resulted in severe burns. After taking it out of the bag, Monita reportedly dropped the sauce on her leg because it was too hot to handle. While the restaurant aims to serve a minimum of 165 degrees, the lawsuit claims the sauce was 189 degrees on the day Monita ate at Bill Miller.
The final judgment allotted $25,000 to cover Monita’s medical expenses, and $900,000 was awarded for past and future mental anguish, physical pain, and impairment.
As a result of being found to be “grossly negligent” by the jury, Monita was awarded $1.9 in punitive damages.
Bill Miller Bar-B-Q still has a chance to appeal the ruling. According to FOX 26, however, no appeals had been filed as of January 19.
The first Bill Miller Bar-B-Q opened in 1953 as a small take-out fried chicken restaurant. The restaurant eventually expanded to hamburgers and then barbeque before opening its second location in 1963. Today, the chain operates 75 locations in Texas in the San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Austin markets.