A passenger has sued American Airlines after a flight attendant spilled “scalding hot” coffee on him, claiming it burned him and ruined his tattoo.
American Airlines Faces Hot Coffee Lawsuit
George Latorre was traveling from Vietnam to New York on an American Airlines-issued ticket, first traveling to Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways and then connecting on American Airlines to New York (JFK).
On his connecting leg, Latorre was seated in seat 33J and alleges that a flight attendant spilled a hot cup of coffee on him, causing extreme pain and damage to his tattoo.
Due to defendant’s recklessness, carelessness and negligence, plaintiff was caused to be scalded when hot coffee was caused to be spilled on his left arm, as a result of which he suffered severe and permanent personal injuries.
The lawsuit alleges the flight attendant was “careless, reckless and negligent” in serving coffee and alleges American Airlines is guilty of:
- failing to hire and retain competent personnel and employees
- failing to properly and adequately supervise, monitor and train personnel and employees
- refusing to permit plaintiff to purchase a business class seat with extra leg room after he had been burned
- failing to have proper and adequate policies and procedures
(the bold allegation stood out to me…how is refusing an upgrade possibly an actionable item?)
Latorre now faces injuries “including second degree to his upper left arm; blistering; peeling; bleeding; possible permanent cosmetic deformity and scarring.”
Consequently, Latorre is now seeking damages for:
- extreme pain and suffering
- emotional harm
- mental anguish
- distress
American Airlines has, unsurprisingly, refused to comment on the case.
As an aside, many have made a connection to the McDonalds scaling coffee lawsuit of more than 30 years ago. The McDonalds scalding coffee lawsuit is often lampooned, but it perhaps it was not so frivolous after all. McDonalds served coffee at 30-40ºF hotter than other companies, suggesting McDonalds did not act responsibly in the way it served coffee.
CONCLUSION
A man alleges a flight attendant reckless spilled coffee on him during a Doha – New York flight, causing permanent damages.
Now he is seeking damages in New York State court. You can read his complaint here.
Unless someone is a model in the prime of her career or is burned in the face, genitals, or skin folds like the neck, the demand is most likely outrageous.
With that said the issue of spilled beverages is real and it doesn’t make sense for flight attendants to be so nonchalant when serving these hot beverages in a cabin that can be hit by turbulence any time. Passengers also can easily knock over their own beverage on to themselves or a seatmate.
The solution to this is to not offer hot beverages at all. I doubt most people will stop flying an airline because they don’t offer coffee and tea. No one should be drinking coffee or tea anyway given how the water is supplied.
Not serving hot beverages at all ? When you buy your coffee at Starbucks, do they hand the coffee to you just a cup with no lid ? How hard is it for AA to invest lids with the cups ??? You know JAL and ANA have been do that for years right ? So how come AA can’t do it ?
This is a plane, not a cafe on the ground. Again, the potable water used for coffee and tea is not something one should drink even if it is heated to near boiling.
Or just serve beverages hot, but not so hot as to burn your skin. allow the coffee to cool to 120F before serving
Jerry, you did me the biggest favor of my life. I spoke to a lawyer, we’re suing for millions. The coffee was too hot!!
Nonsense. I guess the warm coffee was far more painful than getting the tattoo? Sippy cups for big babies.
Easy to fix. Stop offering hot beverages. It is a transportation company and not a restaurant.
When did you get ever get a cup of coffee with no lid anywbere ? What is so hard for AA to get lids with their cups ? You know some airlines had been doing that for years but just not with AA
What’s the point? Airlines should stop serving alcohol, coffee, etc…: Water is all you need to survive a flight. It would make everyone’s lives easier.
Agreed. And “food fasting” for 8 hours or more is much healthier for your body and metabolism.
People with tattoos deserve it.
It would be interesting to see before and after pics. I’ve spilled a few whole pots, right after brewing, on my forearm several times during my 40+ yr run. While it stung as I was saying a few cuss words, it was a non issue within an hour. I have fair skin and it turned a little red briefly with no blistering. That cup of coffee must have been a lot hotter than I’ve ever experienced on a plane.
If you do a google image search, you can see the tattoo. I noticed that the “burn” area is remarkably small, about an inch and a half square or so. Some trolls have made a point that it actually looks BETTER due to the burn (the skin is slightly more pale and the ink contrast seems improved).
Would love to hear what happens with this. It seems others as well since the image search turned up an TMZ show screenshot.
The pictures of the plaintiff and the injury are interesting.
First of all, it’s not like this is something that is going to change this person’s attractiveness. Second, the picture looks like how you might expect a small burn to look in the first few days– I wonder what it. looks like now. The injury looks like something that probably will heal pretty well in a few weeks. Lastly, I always thought people got big snake tattoos on their arms to try to look tough. Well to me, a snake tattoo with a scar on it looks tougher than one without a scar.
I can only hope to get coffee on a flight that was hot enough to burn skin, coffee is normally lukewarm.
I agree with you Richard. He also lost all credibility with me when he whined about not getting a business class seat.
So how many Millions of dollars were they awarded? In Europe, there was an incident I think, on Lufthansa a few months ago and they were awarded a few hundred dollars, or Euros.
I’d perhaps remove the picture of his boarding pass, or at least his e-ticket number or full name – he may have posted it on Instagram (or the like), though you’ve got quite a big platform, where someone may find this information and use it maliciously in future.
His full name is in the lawsuit. It’s worth discussing here for security reasons, but it’s my understanding that after your trip is completed the eticket number should be relatively harmless. I treat my boarding pass as PII during the duration of a trip but afterwards, I don’t fret about throwing it away in the common airport trash. Am I wrong?
His attorney included the boarding pass as one of the evidence exhibits.
Perfect example of one of the reasons why you should never sit in an aisle seat – which increases the chances of having something spilled on you arithmetically based on the number of adjacent seats and potentially exponentially based on the clumsiness of the people occupying those seats.
Oh dear, the lady from McD who poured an entire cup of coffee in her meat purse probably has some tips.
First, just sit there. Don’t do anything. Just let that liquid get ya real good. Then go to Maccers and show them your privates, because that’s something we all want to see, apparently.
God.