A Texas restaurant chain has been ordered to pay $2.8 million to a woman who sustained a second-degree burn from barbecue sauce, FOX News reports.
Genesis Monita, a 19-year-old woman, filed a lawsuit against Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises in October 2023 after the incident occurred earlier in May 2023.
Monita had ordered breakfast tacos with barbecue sauce from the restaurant when she suffered the injury. According to court documents, she accidentally dropped the sauce container on her leg due to the excessive heat of the container. The restaurant’s policy indicated that sauce should be served at a minimum of 165 degrees, but on the day of the incident, the sauce was reportedly heated to 189 degrees, causing the severe burn.
The jury awarded Monita a total of $2.8 million, which includes more than $25,000 for medical expenses, $900,000 for mental anguish, physical pain, and impairment, and $1.9 million in punitive damages after finding Bill Miller Bar-B-Q to be “grossly negligent” in the case.
The chain, which has been serving Texas since 1953 and operates 75 locations across San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Austin, has the option to appeal the ruling, though no appeal has been filed as of yet.
