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The Bill Miller Bar-B-Q restaurant where Genesis Monita claims she suffered second-degree burns from overheated barbecue sauce (Google Maps).
The Texas woman who sued a barbecue restaurant chain for injuries she said were caused by overheated sauce will reportedly recover millions for her damages and suffering.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Genesis Monita, 19, sued Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises, alleging that the barbecue sauce on the breakfast taco she ordered in May 2023 was so hot that it caused her to suffer second-degree burns on her legs when she spilled her food in her lap.
The spill resulted serious injury to the upper portion of her right thigh, she alleged in the lawsuit. Court records show that the jury reached its verdict on Friday.
“We feel very pleased by the results of this case,” Monita’s lawyer Lawrence Morales said Friday, according to San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT. “Genesis just wanted justice.”
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According to Morales, a similar incident happened at the same restaurant two years ago, KSAT reported.
“How many more people need to be burned by the barbecue sauce for Bill Miller to fix it?” Morales said he asked the jury.
Morales said that the restaurant served the sauce 54 degrees higher than the state’s guidelines, which is reportedly 135 degrees.
“It was served at 189 degrees on the date Monita was burned,” Morales said, according to KSAT.
Monita on the morning of May 19, 2023, was accompanied by her sister when she went to the Bill Miller BBQ in the 8800 bock of SW Loop 410 in San Antonio Fox affiliate KABB reported. The two ordered breakfast a total of four breakfast tacos from the restaurant drive-thru and, after getting their food, pulled into the establishment’s parking lot to eat.
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 her lap.
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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?”