The Bill Miller Bar-B-Q restaurant where Genesis Monita claims she suffered second-degree burns from overheated barbecue sauce (Google Maps).
A young woman, 19 years old, from Texas is taking legal action against a barbecue restaurant chain. She claims that the barbecue sauce on her breakfast taco was so hot that it caused second-degree burns on her legs when she accidentally spilled the food in her lap.
Genesis Monita was in court this week as she seeks more than $1 million in damages from Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises over her alleged injuries.
This incident brings to mind the infamous 1992 “hot coffee” lawsuit, where a 79-year-old woman suffered third-degree burns from spilled coffee bought from a popular fast-food chain. Although often misinterpreted as a trivial case, the woman, Monita, argues that the sauce from the local food chain was extremely hot, leading to her lap burn.
According to a report by the local Fox affiliate KABB, Monita visited the Bill Miller BBQ in San Antonio, Texas, on May 19, 2023, accompanied by her sister. After ordering four breakfast tacos from the drive-thru, they parked at the restaurant to consume their food, which ultimately resulted in the unfortunate accident.
As Monita began to eat, she reportedly claims she took out a container of the barbecue sauce, but it was so hot that she dropped the container, spilling the barbecue sauce onto the upper portion of her right thigh and causing her to suffer second-degree burns.
During opening arguments on Wednesday, Monita’s attorney, Lawrence Morales II, told jurors that the sauce served to his client was more than 20 degrees hotter than it was supposed to be, according to a report from the San Antonio Express-News.
“Bill Miller’s unequivocal policy is they will serve their sauce at 165 degrees,” he reportedly said. “Bill Miller violated their safety policy and allowed their barbecue sauce to heat up to a dangerous 189 degrees.”
Monita also claimed that the sauce was served to her in a small plastic cup rather than a heavier foam container, which would have been far better insulated than the plastic cup.
Barry McClenahan, the restaurant chain’s attorney, told the court that Bill Miller policy is not to serve their sauce at 165 degrees, but at a minimum of 165 degrees as required by food safety rules, the Express-News reported. The restaurant does not have a policy against heating the sauce hotter than 165 degrees, he reportedly said.
McClenahan argued that Monita’s own negligence was the primary cause of her injuries, reportedly claiming that she had eaten the sauce “a hundred times” and that each time she did it was “the same temperature.
“At Bill Miller’s, the sauce is always hot, and our customers know that. And that’s why it’s hot,” he said. “What would we have warned Ms. Monita of that she did not already know?”
