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A Texas woman was awarded $2.8 million in a lawsuit she filed in which she alleged barbecue sauce on a breakfast taco she ordered was so hot that it caused second-degree burns on her legs when she dropped it.
19-year-old Genesis Monita won her lawsuit against Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises after being burned by the restaurants barbecue sauce on the morning of May 19, 2023. The incident reportedly occurred when she and her sister stopped in the restaurant’s parking lot to eat the four breakfast tacos they had ordered using the drive-thru.
She claims that when attempted to use a container of the barbecue sauce it was so hot that she dropped it onto the upper portion of her right thigh causing second-degree burns. According to Fox San Antonio, Genesis Monita’s lawyer Lawrence Morales claimed the barbecue sauce was contained in a thin plastic cup which burned Monita’s hands and fingers and her to spill it.
“No one has ever apologized to me, even to this day, no one has ever apologized to me, you know they just shook my hand, have a good day, but I have not received an apology from them,” she said.
In her lawsuit against Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises, Monita says she suffered physical and mental pain, physical impairment, disfigurement, medical and psychological expenses and lost wages as a result of the burns.
“Bill Miller’s policy says they serve the barbecue sauce at 165 degrees. It was served at 189 degrees on the date Monita was burned,” Morales said. “The state says it’s safe to serve at 135 degrees.”
Barry McClenahan, the restaurant chain’s attorney, says their policy is not to serve their sauce at a minimum of 165 degrees as required by food safety rules and does not have a policy against heating the sauce hotter than 165 degrees.
Bill Miller attorneys also stated during the trial that the restaurant, where she had eaten the sauce “a hundred times,” sent her a check for her medical expenses, offered to cover her lost wages and money to get her car cleaned. She declined their offers and didn’t cash the check. They also claimed she only received medical care for the burn once, on the day of the accident, never had to follow back up with doctors, and still has her job working at a local pizza place.
“How many more people need to be burned by the barbecue sauce for Bill Miller to fix it?” Morales said he asked the jury.
Apparently, the answer is none because the jury agreed with him and awarded his client $2.8 million, much like in 1994 when 81-year-old Stella Liebeck won $3 million after she spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee on her own lap and suffered burns.