Trial Guides is proud to share some exciting news about one of our bestselling authors: Nicholas Rowley, founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice, recently secured a $50 million verdict in a lawsuit against Starbucks Coffee Company.
- Case: Michael Garcia v. Starbucks Corporation
- County: Los Angeles
- Judge: Frederick C. Shaller
- Dates: 03/05/25 – 03/14/25
- Case Number: 20STCV10214
- Total Verdict: $50,000,000
Running with the Bulls by Nicholas Rowley and Courtney Rowley is available in paperback and ebook.
A Postmates Delivery Gone Wrong
On February 8, 2020, 25-year-old Michael Garcia was working in Los Angeles, California as a Postmates food delivery driver. As he had done many times before as part of his job, he was picking up a customer order of three venti-sized hot tea drinks at the drive-through window of a Los Angeles Starbucks.
As can be seen in the store’s video footage, the drinks were handed to him in a paper drink carrier by a Starbucks employee, and shortly after he had the carrier in his hands over his lap, one of the hot teas spilled, causing him visible pain and distress.
The Starbucks hot tea drink was so dangerously hot that it resulted in third-degree burns to Garcia’s penis, inner thighs, and groin area. His burn injuries required skin grafts on his genitals. Since the incident, Garcia “has lived for five years with the disfigurement, pain, dysfunction, and psychological harm caused by the burns,” according to his lawyers.
Voir Dire and Opening Statement by Nick Rowley, Courtney Rowley, and Wendy Saxon is available in paperback and ebook.
The Trial
The trial took place March 5–14, 2025 in the Spring Street Courthouse of the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles, with Judge Frederick C. Shaller presiding. The trial phase to determine liability lasted just two days.
The Plaintiff’s Case
The plaintiff retained Nicholas Rowley to represent him. Rowley argued that the Starbucks barista was negligent in failing to properly secure one of the hot tea drinks into the drink carrier, thereby causing the scalding hot tea to spill into Garcia’s lap and leaving him seriously injured.
Rowley and his team contended that the Starbucks barista “did not securely fasten the lids of each hot beverage that were negligently, carelessly and recklessly served” to Mr. Garcia.” Starbucks maintained that the hot tea spilled into Garcia’s lap after he had complete physical control of the beverages inside of his vehicle.
To demonstrate how the incident occurred, Rowley provided an opening statement with Garcia sitting near him to reenact how the barista handed the caddy of hot tea drinks through the drive-through window. Rowley used the store’s video footage to support his argument that the barista failed to secure one of the three venti-sized tea drink cups into the tray before handing it to Garcia, in violation of Starbucks’ documented corporate policy.
Rowley dismissed Starbucks’ argument that the unrestrained dog in Garcia’s car was a factor in the incident, arguing that it has no bearing on the Starbucks employee doing their job properly and safely, and does not violate any local ordinances to have a loose dog in a car. Rowley was emphatic: “This young man did nothing to cause this to happen. Nothing at all.”
In closing arguments, Rowley told jurors that Garcia has suffered harm from the incident that affects "every facet of his life.”
The Defendant’s Case
The defendant, Starbucks Corporation, headquartered in Seattle, is a multinational company that owns and operates the largest chain of coffeehouses and coffee roasters in the world, with more than 35,000 stores across 80 countries. In 2024, the company’s net revenue from coffee sales was $36.18 billion, an increase over $35.98 billion in 2023.
Starbucks’ defense attorney, Stephen Pelletier of Price Pelletier LLP, contested that the Starbucks barista had followed proper corporate procedures. He maintained that Garcia had control of the drinks when the spill occurred, and that he had a long history of picking up similar hot beverage orders from drive-through windows in his work as Postmates delivery driver, and that he should have been familiar with how to handle them safely.
Furthermore, the defense contended that the ongoing medical treatment Garcia has required in recent years was unrelated to the burn injury incident, and instead caused by a pre-existing medical condition of juvenile onset diabetes.
The Verdict
It took the jury two days to come to a decision during the first phase regarding liability—they returned an 11-1 verdict for the plaintiff that Starbucks was 100% responsible for the accident, and Garcia bore no negligence in the incident.
Total compensatory damages were assessed at $50 million, in addition to attorneys’ fees.
In the second phase of the trial regarding damages, a verdict was reached by nine of the 12 jurors, which is the minimum number needed under California law. Jury deliberations lasted from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning. “This jury verdict is a critical step in holding Starbucks accountable for flagrant disregard for customer safety and failure to accept responsibility,” Nick Rowley said in a statement.
"We sympathize with Mr. Garcia, but we disagree with the jury's decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive,” a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement. “We plan to appeal. We have always been committed to the highest safety standards in our stores, including the handling of hot drinks.”
Trial By Human by Nick Rowley and Steven Halteman is available in print and ebook.
A Revisitation of the “McDonald's Hot Coffee Case”
If the Michael Garcia v. Starbucks case sounds familiar, it’s likely because of the notorious and widely misunderstood Stella Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants case of 1994.
On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, then 79, bought a cup of coffee at McDonald's at an Albuquerque, New Mexico drive-through. She returned to her car, and removed the lid to add cream and sugar, and spilled the scalding-hot coffee on her lap, suffering third-degree burns to her thighs, groin, and buttocks.
How hot was the coffee? Sources confirmed that it was dangerously hot—180 to 190 degrees—which is about 20–30°F hotter than coffee brewed at home. Coffee at 180 degrees is hot enough to cause a serious burn; in this case, it burned her skin down to her muscle and fatty tissue within seconds. She was hospitalized for eight days while she underwent skin grafts, and was partially disabled for two years.
Liebeck reached out to McDonald's and offered to settle for $20,000 to cover her medical bills, and McDonald’s offered only $800. After her numerous attempts to get fair compensation for her injuries, she sued the company. The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages for her medical costs, pain, and suffering, and those damages were reduced to $160,000 because she was deemed 20 percent responsible.
The judge initially awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages At a later date, the trial judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,000. In the end, a settlement of less than $500,000 was reached.
The media and public perceived this as a case of frivolous tort litigation run rampant, and Stella Liebeck was parodied as a woman who abused the legal system and got rich by negligently spilling appropriately hot coffee on her lap (Bertram, 2013). What most people didn’t know is that McDonald’s had received hundreds of complaints over decades that their 180–190°F hot coffee caused serious burn injuries, and they even settled some of those cases.
Nevertheless, McDonald’s did not reduce the temperature of the coffee it served to a normal range of 135–150°F, even though they knew that it was causing serious injury and posing danger to their customers. Liebeck was concerned about the hundreds of people burned by McDonald’s coffee, and wanted to prevent what happened to her from happening to others.
Photo Credit: Trial Lawyers for Justice
About the Attorney
Nicholas C. Rowley is a nationally renowned trial lawyer celebrated for his record-breaking verdicts and settlements, amassing over $3.5 billion for injury victims and families across the United States. Known for his relentless advocacy in cases involving serious injuries, medical malpractice, and wrongful death, Rowley has earned accolades such as the 2018 Trial Lawyer of the Year and recognition in the National Law Journal’s Elite Trial Lawyers Awards. Rowley is the founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice.
Trial Guides is honored to publish Nicholas Rowley’s books and media, including Running with the Bulls, Trial by Human, Voir Dire and Opening Statement, and multiple on-demand videos.