McDonald’s in new ‘hot coffee’ case

After originally being denied the chance to take a Brooklyn-based McDonald’s franchise to court, Boris Khanimov now has a second bite of the cherry and intends to take full advantage of the situation.

His initial claim was waved away two years, but a local appeals court has reinstated him claim and proceedings against the franchise, officially known as 82 Court Street Corp., will begin again.

“There was no competent proof submitted by 82 Court,” the appeal judges wrote in their statement.

But has caused Mr Khanimov, a seventy year-old, to file a lawsuit against the franchisees?

A cup of hot of coffee.

The case submitted claims that Khanimov slipped and fell in the Brooklyn McDonald’s. But this wasn’t just any regular fall; he was, at the time, holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee. The coffee ended up all over the elderly cobbler, leaving him with second- and third-degree burns that covered a large part of his torso – from shoulder to stomach – and scarring him for life.

The case was thrown out in 2012 (ed: bizarrely we feel given the evidence presented) but the write-up of its resurrection could prove to be rather damaging:

“82 Court produce no competent evidence to establish that the coffee served to the plaintiff on the day of the accident was within the range that would normally be expected,” the ruling read. It also noted that there was no proof that “the coffee was dispensed [within] the temperature parameters provided by [the] franchisor (McDonald’s).”

Khanimov and his lawyer, Mr Hoshovsky, have admitted that they are unaware of the temperature of the coffee when served, but they are adamant it was above the designated safe levels. “We believe it was more, because it caused [Mr Khanimov] such severe burns,” Hoshovsky said.

There has been a spate of these ‘hot coffee’ cases in recent weeks, with In-N-Out and Denny’s involved in some high profile lawsuits. 

photo: Mike Mozart Flickr – used under creative commons