A Starbucks customer settled his lawsuit in which he alleged he was burned after a hot drink handed out by a drive-thru employee spilled onto his lap due to an unsecured lid.
Ernesto Vladimir Sanchez Avendano’s Alhambra Superior Court negligence suit sought unspecified general and special damages. On Thursday, attorneys told Judge Lauren A. R. Lofton that the case had been resolved. No terms were divulged in the judge’s clerk’s minute order.
In her earlier court papers, a Starbucks attorney denied Avendano’s allegations and said his injuries were caused wholly or in part by his own negligence.
A Starbucks Corp. representative previously issued a statement regarding Avendano’s suit.
“We have always been committed to the highest safety standards in our stores, including the handling of hot drinks,” the statement read.
According to the suit, Avendano went to the Starbucks store in North Hollywood in the 12500 block of Sherman Way on April 3, 2023, ordered a hot drink in the drive-thru and proceeded to the pickup window. However, the lid on the drink handed to him by an employee was not properly fastened and hot liquid spilled onto Avendano’s lap, leaving him with “severe burns, disfigurement and debilitating nerve damage to his genitals and buttocks,” the suit stated.
“No reasonable expectation of an unsecure lid on a cup of hot liquid can be attributed to plaintiff’s conduct,” the suit filed in April 2025 stated.
In March 2025, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury ordered Starbucks to pay $50 million to Postmates delivery driver Michael Garcia, who suffered third-degree burns when a hot drink spilled on him in February 2020 due to an improperly secured lid after his order was handed to him at a South Los Angeles drive-thru.