Comments on: Yes, tea is hot, too: Zeynep Inanli v. Starbucks

By: Jeff Hall

Jeff Hall — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:32:06 +0000

I’m not a lawyer, and there’s something that perplexes about the law of this situation. Tea is a beverage made by pouring boiling water over fermented tea leaves. When a restaurant gives you steeping tea where the water is not at the boiling point, then they are not giving you what any reasonable person expects by the word “tea”.

Water always boils at the same temperature (assuming that the ambient air pressure is constant.) How can boiling water be “unreasonably hot”? If it were any hotter it would quickly become steam, if it were any colder it wouldn’t be boiling water any more.

By: vic

vic — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:23:53 +0000

I read on another blog that this woman was hospitalized for 5 days…..that’s pretty serious

By: Starbucks Hot Tea Case: Merit or Not? – New York Personal Injury Law Blog

Starbucks Hot Tea Case: Merit or Not? – New York Personal Injury Law Blog — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:39:20 +0000

[…] Frank picked it up at Overlaywered. Frank, however, cautiously withheld his opinion because the Reuters article “fails to […]

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:15:08 +0000

“I also believe that companies selling hot coffee have the obligation to put it in an appropriate container.”

In your circumstance, wouldn’t you think it was likely a defective or damaged cup? The vast majority of the take-out coffee I have purchased has come in paper/cardboard cups. Such cups have been used for take-out coffee for at least a half-century; I think such long time usage garners them classification as “appropriate containers”.

(Remember the little fold-out handles – like an angel’s wings.)

Just a side note, as a slob, I can attest that generally the bottom of a paper coffee cup will not “let go” until well after mold has formed on the surface of the coffee. See for further reference, my desk.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:07:01 +0000

Chipper has nothing to do with it. It is more of a physiology thing.

By: Bill Poser

Bill Poser — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:16:11 +0000

I have a hard time feeling sorry for people who are so chipper that they feel comfortable leaving home before having a cup of coffee. 🙂

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:39:05 +0000

I said the hell with it and bought a coffee maker for my office today. My commute isn’t that long and I’d rather slep the extra ten minutes it takes to mak it at home.

By: JC

JC — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:29:24 +0000

Where I come from, we call that “felony stoopid”.
@ Jim (nice name, by teh way, I use the same one myself), I brew at home into a big thermos mug, and carry a spare in the event of massive traffic hangups. For the used bev, and they’re color coded to avoid confusion. Hopuston can be like that.

By: VMS

VMS — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:08:28 +0000

I was unable to find any record of the case on the New York County Clerk’s website (SCROLL) when searching by index number or party name: http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/iscroll/index.jsp

It is my understanding, that as soon as a case is filed and the index number paid for, it is immediately registered on SCROLL, but the scanning of actual documents may lag behind.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:30:14 +0000

Up untill a few days ago I would have sided with Starbucks. I stop frequently at a drive through coffee kiosk that brews each order individually. As a result the coffee is extremely hot. I put the cup in my cup holder and by the time that I get to my desk at work, the coffee, has cooled to a drinkable temperature. This was fine until a few days ago. In a cost cutting measure, the kiosk has gone from using an insulated foam cup to a paper cup with a thin foam insulating sleeve. When I went to pick my cup up out of the cup holder, the bottom of the cup let go, soaking my right thigh in hot coffee. I now have a large burn about the same severity as a heavy sunburn on my thigh. This morning when I stopped at the kiosk, I told them about their new cups. The guy running the kiosk told me that I should spend $10.99 on an aluminum travel mug that they were selling and I wouldn’t have that problem any more. I’m not suing, but, I am also not stopping there any more. I know that coffee is supposed to be hot and if I would have gotten burned through any action on my part, it would have been my fault, but, I also believe that companies selling hot coffee have the obligation to put it in an appropriate container.