VINELAND
- A local man has sued a Dunkin' store here,
contending he was severely burned when an
employee spilled his "scalding coffee"
onto his lap.
Leonard
Allen claims he suffered second-degree burns in
the Aug. 25, 2020, incident at a doughnut shop
on the 700 block of Chestnut Avenue.
But
the store's operator, Vineland Donuts Inc., has
denied liability and asserts its worker was
not negligent.
A
separate but similar suit against Wawa ended
last year with a $3-million settlement for a
young burn victim and her mother.
The
Wawa suit alleged a clerk caused a cup of hot
tea to spill onto a preschool girl at a
convenience store in Neptune, Monmouth County.
The child suffered second- and third-degree
burns over her upper body in the April 2018
incident.
Wawa
and its insurer did not admit liability under
the settlement.
In
the current suit, Vineland Donuts has asserted
multiple defenses against Allen's claim,
including a claim that the spill resulted from
"an unavoidable act insofar as the
defendant is concerned and was the direct result
of an Act of God."
The
lawsuit says Allen ordered a medium coffee at
the store's drive-through window and that an
employee caused the cup's contents to spill onto
him.
It
alleges the employee "failed to secure the
cup and lid of the beverage … and was
otherwise negligent."
The
hot beverage caused "immediate and
agonizing pain to (Allen's) thigh and groin
area," says the suit, filed by attorney
Durann
Neil in Atlantic County Superior
Court.
The
suit seeks unspecified damages from
Vineland Donuts, claiming the business
"served their coffee in a Styrofoam cup at
an extreme temperature beyond human
consumption."
It
also names the unidentified donut-shop worker as
a defendant.
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