A woman has reached a settlement in her lawsuit against McDonald’s Restaurants of California Inc. in which she alleged that hot coffee spilled onto her after she bought a cup with an unsecured or defective lid at a drive-through at a Koreatown location of the fast food chain in 2024.
Pamela Shahabi’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleged negligence, strict products liability and breaches of both the implied warranty of merchantability and the implied warranty of fitness for a particular use. On Monday, Shahabi’s attorney filed court papers with Judge Teresa A. Beaudet notifying her that a resolution of the case was reached Nov. 19. No settlement terms were revealed in the court papers.
Shahabi, 56, is represented by the Sweet James LLP law firm. In their previous court papers, McDonald’s attorneys denied Shahabi’s allegations and cited multiple defenses, including that the plaintiff “knew or should have known of the product’s inherent risk of danger if the product was not properly handled.”
According to Shahabi’s suit, she went to the McDonald’s in the 300 block of South Vermont Avenue about 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2024, ordered a hot coffee through the drive-through speaker and then drove to the pickup window.
An employee handed Shahabi the coffee, but either the lid was not properly secured or did not fit that particular cup, the suit states. As a result, the lid fell off and hot coffee spilled onto the plaintiff’s lap, leaving her with serious burns, some of them in the second degree, on her left inner thigh and leg as well as elsewhere on her body, according to the suit.
Shahabi also contended that she sustained permanent scarring.
The employee had an obligation as a McDonald’s employee to give Shahabi the coffee with its lid securely fastened or to warn her if it was not secured, according to the suit filed June 11, which further stated that the plaintiff suffered lost earnings and severe emotional distress.