Tim Hortons, Canada’s most popular coffee company, is being sued for providing a customer with “superheated” tea in a faulty cup. A woman and her family from Ontario are suing the coffee company for C$500,000 ($366,000) after the tea caused “horrific” burns on her body. Last year, 73-year-old Jackie Lansing was burned when the cup toppled on her. Jackie, according to her statement of claim, requested a black tea from a drive-through in southern Ontario. She took up the cup while sitting in the passenger seat of a car. According to her, the cup “quickly fell in on itself,” leaving her burned.
“What began as a routine occurrence, buying a cup of tea, in the blink of an eye turned into a life-changing injury”
“As a result, approximately 14 ounces of scalding hot liquid spilled on Ms. Lansing’s stomach and legs,” her claim reads. “The tea provided was a hazard rather than a beverage.” Jackie’s lawyer Gavin Tighe claims that the company was careless when it came to the temperature of the tea and the structure of the cup. “What began as a routine occurrence, buying a cup of tea, in the blink of an eye turned into a life-changing injury that required multiple hospital visits and has left both physical and emotional scars,” Gavin told Guardian.
According to Jackie’s statement of claim, Lansing had to take morphine to relieve the agony, and the wounds took more than three weeks to heal. She has been “permanently and gravely damaged… and deformed” as a result of the accident. Lansing also claims that she now has hypersensitive skin that requires frequent care. She has also experienced weight gain and is now “often afraid … gloomy, melancholy and tearful”. Her daughter is also suing under the Family Law Act, claiming that the injury has rendered her mother unable to completely care for her impaired kid.
They are seeking a dismissal of Lansing’s claim saying that she “assumed the risk” when ordering a hot beverage
Meanwhile, TDL Group Corp, the licensing company of Tim Hortons, and Greenwood Enterprises Inc, the operator of the franchise, have denied all allegations of negligence. They are seeking a dismissal of Lansing’s claim saying that she “assumed the risk” when ordering a hot beverage. “She was the author of her own misfortune”, the groups say. Their statement of defense further says that Lansing was distracted by her phone at the time of the incident.
The case reminds of a 1994 case in which Stella Liebeck, 79, sued McDonald’s for life-threatening third-degree burns after spilling hot coffee on her lap. A jury awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages. Even though she won, her case drew derision from a variety of sources.
