Our client, a black female in her thirties, went to a local Vietnamese Pho restaurant for her lunch break. She ordered her Chicken Pho dish to go. She was not warned that the broth, which was in a plastic cylinder Tupperware container was hot enough to burn her. In fact, she was not provided any warnings at all. The soup broth container was placed on top of a square Styrofoam to-go box with the add-ins for the soup, which were both put in a flimsy plastic bag and tied. When the client got to her car, she put the package on the passenger floorboard. After getting to the first light she could sense the soup broth container was shifting around and might fall and spill in her car. At a red light, she reached over to open the bag and grab the broth container to put it inside a cup holder to be more secure. Just then, the container lost its form, the top popped off, and it spilled all over her stomach and lap area causing very serious second-degree burns.
The case was vigorously defended. The main defense was comparative fault. They blamed our client for moving the soup while in the car, and also for not knowing that hot Pho soup is...well...hot. But we pushed past that superficial attempt. We hired an investigator to order the same dish to-go on multiple occasions and take the broth's temperature. We then deposed the defendant restaurant who told us the temperature range of the broth. The investigator's results showed that the broth was routinely being given to customers hotter than the restaurant claimed it would ever serve it, and always without warnings. During the litigation, the restaurant even changed its packaging, added "HOT!" stickers on the bag, and issued clear verbal warnings to all customers about potential burn injuries. On the even of trial, the insurance company, who had previously offered very little money, agreed to pay their full policy limits of $1 Million to settle the case.
