McDonald's Worker Burned Woman With Hot Coffee Spill In Gloucester Twp.: Lawsuit

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — A woman sustained burns and serious injuries after a McDonald's employee spilled overheated coffee onto her in Gloucester Township, according to a recent lawsuit.

The incident happened in September 2023 at the McDonald's on Blackwood-Clementon Road, according to a complaint filed Aug. 29.

The customer, Pamela Evans, was at the drive-thru window when an employee spilled hot coffee on her, the lawsuit says. In an instinctive attempt to avoid the spill, Evans reflexively pulled her and back and struck it against her car door, causing "serious additional injuries," the complaint states.

Some of her injuries are permanent, forcing Evans to expend "large sums of money" for medical treatment and preventing her from pursuing "her usual occupation," the lawsuit says.

The employee "negligently overheated coffee to a temperature unsafe for handling and/or consumption by the public," the lawsuit says.

The complaint doesn't specify the nature of her alleged physical injuries or the severity of the burns.

Defendants include the McDonald's corporation, the location's owners and operators, and the owners of the property where the restaurant is located.

The lawsuit claims McDonald's failed to "properly hire, train, and supervise all personnel to ensure that food and beverages were served safely and that patrons."

A McDonald's spokesperson did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Evans's attorney filed the lawsuit in Camden County Superior Court, demanding a jury trial.

NJ Advance Media first reported the case.

McDonald's Coffee: Past Legal Action

You may have heard a story like this before.

In the 1990s, a woman named Stella Liebeck sued McDonald's after spilling the restaurant's coffee on her lap and suffering severe burns. The case received widespread media attention, becoming the butt of jokes on late-night programming while critics called it a frivolous lawsuit.

But there was more to the story.

Liebeck offered to settle the case for $20,000, but McDonald's refused and offered her only $800. When the case went to trial, experts testified that McDonald's was 30 to 40 degrees hotter than coffee served at other companies. Jurors learned that 700 others, including children, suffered burns from McDonald's coffee, but the company didn't change its temperature policy.

The jury found McDonald's was 80 percent responsible for the incident and rewarded Liebeck nearly $3 million in damages. The trial judge later reduced the punitive damages from $2.7 million to $480,000, leading the parties to settle for a confidential amount.

Former attorney Susan Saladoff, who directed an HBO documentary about the case, blamed political and corporate influence for the misinterpretation of the lawsuit in media.