A man is suing American Airlines after a flight attendant accidentally spilled hot coffee on his arm and allegedly caused ‘severe’ damage including burning his tattoo.
George Latorre claims that the flight attendant dropped scorching coffee that led to second-degree burns to his upper left arm, ‘blistering; peeling, bleeding; possible permanent cosmetic deformity and scarring’.
The flight attendant was ‘careless, reckless, and negligent in serving scalding coffee to the plaintiff in an unsafe manner’, states Latorre’s complaint filed last Thursday in Manhattan state court.
Latorre claimes he experienced ‘extreme pain and suffering’ as well as ’emotional harm, mental anguish and distress’.
The incident happened as Latorre, of Pennsylvania, flew from Vietnam back home to New York with his son sitting next to him
Latorre claims he tried to buy a seat in the business class after the coffee spill but that crew members refused to let him.
The passenger went to a doctor after landing and says he was told that the burn was ‘serious enough’ that he should see a surgeon.
Images shared on Facebook showed redness over the tattoo on Latorre’s arm.
The pain prevented Latorre from sleeping well and prompted him to seek more medical treatment, the complaint states.
Latorre claims that the airline failed to ‘hire and retain competent personnel and employees’.
An American Airlines spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation, according to the New York Post.
Latorre filed his lawsuit about a month after an elderly woman sued a McDonald’s restaurant in San Francisco, alleging a worker spilled hot coffee and burned her groin and legs severely. Mable Childress, in her 80s, claims that the employee failed to properly shut the lid and that the liquid spilled and ’caused her to suffer from severe burns and emotional distress’.
The cases are reminiscent of a 1994 suit filed by a 79-year-old woman who claimed she suffered third-degree burns from coffee spilled on her lap at McDonald’s. A jury awarded $3million to Stella Liebeck and a judge reduced the a mount, and both sides came to an undisclosed settlement amount.
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