McDonald's faces another 'hot coffee' lawsuit. Severely burned woman sues over negligence

McDonald's is facing another lawsuit over a hot coffee spill.

Mable Childress, the Plaintiff, claims that hot coffee poured over her body and caused "severe burns" due to a lid being improperly placed. Childress has burns on her stomach, groin, and leg, which are still receiving treatment.

The restaurant's negligence was a "substantial factor" in causing an elderly woman to suffer from physical pain, emotional distress, and other damages, according to a lawsuit filed last week.

Childress also said in the lawsuit that the restaurant employees "refused" to help her, a point that McDonald's denied.

"We take every customer complaint seriously, and when Childress reported her experience to us later that day, our employees and management team spoke to her within a few minutes and offered assistance," the McDonald's franchise owner, Peter Ou, said in a statement to CNN.

According to the complaint filed by Dylan Hackett, a personal injury lawyer and managing partner at Hackett Law Firm, Childress spilled coffee from the McDonald's drive-thru on Fillmore Street around June 13. When Childress tried to drink her coffee, the unsecured lid caused the hot contents to spill on to her lap, resulting in "severe burns" on her groin, as stated in the complaint.

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A case management conference has been scheduled for Mable Childress v. McDonald's Restaurants of California, Inc. for Feb. 14.

Previous McDonald's sued over coffee incident

According to a jury's verdict in 1994, Stella Liebeck from Albuquerque, New Mexico was granted $2.7 million in punitive damages and $200,000 for the third-degree burns she endured when coffee she purchased from a McDonald's drive-thru spilled on to her lap.

The trial judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,000 and compensatory damages to $160,000, according to court records. Liebeck settled with McDonald's for an undisclosed amount at age 79.

Childress sued over employee negligence, Liebeck took a different approach and sued to lower the coffee water temperature at McDonald's. According to court records, the coffee was heated to 180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit, just below the boiling point of water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

Liebeck's lawsuit against McDonald's was widely covered in the '90s. The documentary "Hot Coffee" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2011 and explored the case.