A woman is suing Continental Airlines company United Continental Holdings Inc. over spilled coffee. The Texas woman claims that she was badly burned by coffee that was spilled on her during a flight from Madrid to Newark in 2011.
Lourdes Cervantes' lawyers filed a suit in court last week about the incident, which she said took place on a Continental flight before the airline merged with United, the Daily Mail reports.
While the flight was en route rom Spain to the U.S., a flight attendant placed coffee on Cervantes' tray table. The passenger in front of her reclined their chair and Cervantes says the coffee slid and fell onto her legs.
"She did suffer quite a bit of pain," attorney Shaw Clifford told KTRH News. "What made it even worse is that Ms Cervantes has multiple sclerosis, so when the coffee spilled on her she couldn't get up. She just had to sit there and take it."
The lawsuit says that Cervantes had second-degree burns on her inner thighs which required her to seek medical treatment and she now had permanent scars on her legs.
It has been more than a year since the incident occurred but Cervantes is now suing United Continental for $170,550, the maximum compensation allowable under a 1999 treaty known as the Montreal Convention.
Under the treaty, victims of accidents on international flight are given compensation for any physical or emotional injuries sustained in-flight.
"This is a treaty the United States and several other countries entered into to regulate international flights so there would be one set of rules," Clifford said.
Under the law, the victim was show proof of their injury by accident, which Clifford says is a "lesser standard of proof than a negligent standard of proof. So all we have to prove is an accident, and as a result of that accident she suffered injuries and damages."
The airline did not comment on the incident. Clifford is seeking a jury trial for Cervantes.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
