MAY 15, 2015
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
Police Sgt. Matthew Kohr got a cup of coffee from his usual
barista, Ali, one day in January 2012 at Starbucks Store No. 8373 in the North
Carolina capital.
The venti-size coffee blend — Kohr says Ali called it
"something special" — was hot. It spilled into the officer's lap. His
inner thigh was scalded, as was the tip of his penis, he later said.
A lawsuit ensued.
On Monday morning, Kohr sat in a downtown courtroom with his
arm around his wife, Melanie, while a jury deliberated whether the giant
$57-billion coffee corporation was legally liable for the officer's injuries.
Kohr, 44, a tall, wavy-haired officer who is now a
lieutenant, contended that his burns were so severe that they left him
clinically depressed, anxious, sleep-deprived and unable to enjoy everyday
life. The burns also resulted in what Kohr's lawsuit called "loss of
consortium" with his wife.
"Starbucks delivered a cup of coffee that robbed Matt
Kohr of control of his life," the officer's lawyer, Daniel H. Johnson,
told a jury of eight men and four women Friday, according to news reports.
The officer blamed a faulty lid and said Ali failed to
provide a protective cardboard sleeve. The lid popped off, Kohr said, and
drenched his police trousers with scalding coffee.
"I wanted to beat my chest and scream," Kohr
testified. "But the place was full of people."
His lawsuit sought a minimum of $10,000 and up to $750,000
for what he said were third-degree burns.
Kohr's trip to court has invited comparisons to the infamous
McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit that became, for some critics, an emblem of an
overly litigious society.
After a 79-year-old woman in New Mexico said she was scalded
by McDonald's coffee in 1992, a jury awarded her $2.9 million in compensatory
and punitive damages — reduced by courts to $640,000. The two sides later
reached a secret settlement.
Kohr's lawsuit accused Starbucks of "allowing its
employees, including Ali, to produce and serve products that had not been
tested for safety; and creating … a service environment in which Ali was unable
to recognize both a faulty cup and a defective or improper lid."
According to his lawsuit, he rushed into the coffee shop
bathroom, where a large burn and blisters had already formed on his inner
thigh. His partner poured cold water on the wound to no effect, the lawsuit
said.
A Starbucks lawyer, Tricia M. Derr, pointed out that Kohr
drove his police car from Starbucks to a police lot and then drove his truck
home, where his wife photographed his injury. She said he waited almost 2 1/2
hours to seek medical attention.
"Lawsuit never crossed my mind that day," Kohr
said on the stand. "Did it later? Yes."
The burned tissue on Kohr's inner thigh turned black, and
puss oozed from parts of the wound, according to the lawsuit.
Starbucks said its coffee is served with an "extremely
hot" warning on each cup. Of more than 4 billion cups served each year, it
said, fewer than 60 damage claims have been filed.
Perhaps, Derr suggested, it was Kohr who was responsible for
spilling the coffee.
"How does someone who knows their coffee is hot, who
has had 50 cups of free coffee in the last two months, how does that person
spill their coffee?" she asked in court.
Starbucks also argued that Kohr's depression could have been
caused by his use of the steroid prednisone to treat his Crohn's disease, an
inflammatory bowel condition. The officer's doctor testified that Kohr had
become "steroid dependent."
After nearly a week of testimony, the jury took four hours
Friday to weigh the merits of the case. Afterward, the foreman told Judge
Donald W. Stephens the jury was stuck at 11 to 1 — he didn't say which way. The
judge ordered jurors to keep trying Monday.
Meanwhile, the two sides agreed to accept any verdict
reached by at least 10 jurors. Duly informed, the jury deliberated for just 15
minutes or so Monday before returning with a 10-2 verdict in favor of
Starbucks.
Kohr hugged his wife, and the couple soon left the courtroom
with their lawyer. Johnson, the officer's attorney, said Kohr would have no
comment.
"We're disappointed, of course," Johnson said.
"We appreciate the jury's service and respect their decision."
A spokeswoman for Starbucks said in a statement: "We
are pleased with the jury's decision as we believe our partners [employees] did
nothing wrong. The safety of our customers and partners will continue to be our
top priority."
If this officer indeed has Crohn's which I happen to have,
it's not the smartest thing to be drinking coffee to begin with(unless he
doesn't mind getting diarrhea as the result). And the combination of
caffein(assuming it was caffeinated) and Prednisone also is a no brainer.