Family sues US resort for serving hot chocolate

Family sues resort in the USA after girl suffers burns with hot chocolate
Bruno Tadashi/Senac PR/Heavenly Mountain Resort
A family filed a lawsuit in the United States against a ski resort after their five-year-old daughter suffered burns when hot chocolate was poured over her body.
The action was filed in the state of California. According to the lawsuit, Brittany Burns and Joshua Moran Burns were skiing with their daughter on a winter morning when they decided to stop at a cafe at the luxurious Heavenly Mountain Resort.
According to the accusation, after adding whipped cream to the drink, an employee handed the hot chocolate directly to the child without a lid. When she tried to drink it, the liquid - described in the process as "excessively and unnecessarily hot" - would have spilled inside the girl's clothes, causing burns to her chest and abdomen.
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The family seeks compensation for medical expenses, financial losses and "loss of pleasure in life". The lawsuit claims that there was negligence on the part of the resort staff.
"They knew or should have known that this type of hot beverage has great potential to cause incidents and injuries," says the lawsuit.
Roger Dreyer, an attorney representing the Burns family, highlighted that the child has permanent scars from the incident that occurred two years ago.
According to him, although ski resort goers take certain risks from the sport, the case is different.
"You don't expect hot chocolate be prepared at a temperature unsuitable for human consumption," he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
When contacted, the company Vail Resorts, owner of the Heavenly Mountain Resort, did not comment on the case.
Prosecutions for burns caused by hot drinks are not uncommon in the United States. In 2024, the Starbucks chain was ordered to pay $50 million to a customer who suffered injuries after an incident with a hot drink.
One of the best-known cases occurred in 1994, when Stella Liebeck, then 79 years old, sued the McDonald's chain in the state of New Mexico after being burned after spilling a hot drink. The company was ordered to pay US$ 2.8 million, an amount that was later reduced in resources.
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Source: G1