Cop sues Starbucks in hot coffee case

Another day, another lawsuit, another person trying to extract a dollar from a well-known coffee chain over a hot coffee spill: The world keeps on turning.

Normally we don’t mention majority of the ones that get forwarded our way, but sometimes we do, and that’s because they’re newsworthy for a variety of reasons. Such as this one lodged by a serving North Carolina police officer who wants a minimum of $50,000 from Starbucks.

And it’s already begun to turn nasty in the courtroom.

But let’s rewind the clock a few years. What is alleged to have happened?

Matthew Kohr, the police officer in question, alleges that his lawsuit is justifiable because the lid popped straight off his coffee cup, which then collapsed in upon itself, causing a freshly brewed coffee to fall all over his legs and groin.

The coffee was free.

The resulting spillages caused burns and blisters – the type of injuries you’d expect – but also brought about stress, which in turn caused Crohn’s disease to flare up. Kohr then had surgery to remove part of his lower intestine.

And that’s not even mentioning the claim put forward for his wife, Melanie, lost “a source of emotional support.”

The incident is supposed to have taken place in January of 2012, but has only come to light.

Kohr, speaking from the witness box, noted that he knew the coffee was hot when he took it – but not that hot – and when it spilled he wanted to beat his chest and scream, but didn’t because “the place was full of people.”

A fellow officer described the scene as “like a jack-in-the-box.”

But as noted, there have been a few tempestuous exchanges already

“You didn’t go to the emergency room,” said Tricia Deer to Kohr. “You didn’t go get urgent care. You went to get your truck.”

Fellow defence attorneys have also questioned Kohr’s actions in the aftermath of the injury, explaining that he went on long-distance runs and that external factors such as the death of his father and work related stress were likely to trigger the Crohn’s disease, not the coffee spill.

As we said at the top of the piece: nasty.

But let us speculate for a moment. Perhaps the reason for this direct and frankly blunt attack is because of Kohr’s original demands. It has been reported that they initially asked Starbucks for $10million.

“What’s a year and a half, two years of your life worth? I thought it was worth $10million,” Kohr is quoted as saying, before adjusting the number down to $750,000 and then finally settling on $50,000.

Another day, another hot coffee case.