Teenager considers suing McDonald’s after leg injury

Posted 03/03/2010

A teenager is thinking of launching a claim for compensation against McDonald’s after he badly burnt his leg when he spilt one of its hot drinks onto himself.

Ben Lewis, 17, had just left the drive-through of the Powys branch with his girlfriend when her car hit a speed bump at five miles per hour, the victim claims.

He said that this caused the lid of the takeaway tea to come off and as a result, scalding hot liquid spilt onto his leg.

Mr Lewis had to have hospital treatment and his burns are so serious that he will have to take two weeks off work.

He claims that the tea was too hot and the cups were not suitable enough to hold warm drinks.

“McDonald’s shouldn’t get away with this. There’s no way it’s safe to be serving drinks that hot,” his father Tony Lewis told the press.

Although many compensation claims have been launched against McDonald’s in the past, the most notable one is arguably that of Stella Liebeck in the US in 1992.

She set a precedent after successfully claiming $600,000 (£425,000) from the chain for burns caused by hot coffee.

Her legal team found that the coffee had been kept at 180 degrees, which posed a danger to customers.