Starbucks Verdict: Los Angeles jury awards $50 million to delivery driver burned by hot tea

Read how a Los Angeles jury awarded $50 million to a delivery driver burned by scalding Starbucks hot tea. See how the Starbucks verdict highlights corporate responsibility and parallels the McDonald’s coffee case over dangerous beverage temperatures.

By Brad Nakase, Attorney

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. A Routine Delivery

3. Court Case

4. Rowley said the employee didn’t do that

5. Starbucks’ Defense

6. The Jury Speaks

7. A Case That Feels Familiar

8. Why the Starbucks Verdict Matters

9. The Aftermath & What Comes Next

Introduction

Some cases slip quietly through the courts. Others explode into public view because the facts refuse to stay small. This is one of those cases. A spilled cup of hot tea. A young delivery driver vs a global corporation. And a lawyer who knows exactly how to turn a simple story into a fight worth watching.

The jury’s message came loud and clear: Starbucks must pay $50 million.

It wasn’t a number chosen lightly. It followed days of testimony, video evidence, and a young man’s painful retelling of an accident that changed everything for him.

The lawyer behind the Starbucks verdict, Nicholas Rowley, has built a name on cases like this. He doesn’t tiptoe around corporate defenses. He cuts to the human core of a story. And that’s exactly what he did for Michael Garcia.

A Routine Delivery

Michael Garcia (25) was a Postmates delivery driver of meals in Los Angeles, California. He had previously picked up similar orders. An order of three small hot tea drinks in the drive-through Starbucks in Los Angeles was to be picked up, as part of his employment.

He drove into the Starbucks drive-through.

Nothing dramatic. No argument. No hesitation. Just another order.

The barista handed him a paper drink carrier with three venti hot teas. The moment is on camera. The carrier looks ordinary. The exchange is quick. He reaches out. Takes it. Places it above his lap.

Seconds later, chaos.

One cup tilts.

Slides.

Then drops out.

The tea inside wasn’t just hot. It was hot enough to burn through his clothing almost instantly. It hit his thighs, groin, and penis. The pain was immediate. Violent. Overwhelming.

He tried to pull forward. Tried to move. Tried to get the burning liquid away from his skin. The video shows him yelling and twisting. It shows the shock on his face.

And what came after was even worse.

Garcia suffered burns of the third degree. His wounds required surgery to graft skin on the genitals. He experienced surgical procedures, and he had to deal with disfigurement. He struggled with intimacy, with body image, and with the simplest motions.

Five years later, he was still living with pain, scarring, and humiliation. His lawyers later told the court that the injury had touched “every part of his life.” And there was no disagreement on that point. The damage was clear.

Court Case

The Starbucks lawsuit was brought in Los Angeles County. The trial began on 5^th March 2025 before Judge Frederick C. Shaller. The initial part was the one in which the jury made a decision on who was responsible. It lasted only two days. That’s unusually fast. But the evidence was straightforward.

Garcia’s legal team, led by Nick Rowley, argued that the Starbucks barista had failed to secure one of the cups in the carrier. Starbucks has its own written rules about this. The rules say employees must check each drink before handing it to a customer.

Rowley said the employee didn’t do that

To show how the incident happened, Rowley reenacted the moment in court. Garcia sat beside him. Rowley demonstrated how the tray was handed out the window. He showed the exact angle. He showed the gesture. He showed how the cup was loose. And he used Starbucks’ own video footage to back it up.

Then Rowley addressed one of the stranger claims from Starbucks: that Garcia’s dog somehow played a role. The dog was unrestrained in the vehicle. Starbucks suggested this might have contributed to the spill.

Rowley was blunt.

The dog didn’t touch the drinks.

The dog didn’t jump.

The dog didn’t cause anything.

Having a loose dog in the car is not illegal.

And it had nothing to do with a barista failing to seat a cup properly.

“This young man did nothing to cause this to happen,” Rowley told the jury. “Nothing at all.”

Starbucks’ Defense

Starbucks pushed back hard. Their attorney, Stephen Pelletier, argued that the employee had followed company procedures correctly. According to Starbucks, the drinks were secure when handed over.

They said Garcia had full control of the tray when the spill occurred.

They said he had picked up countless hot beverages during his Postmates shifts.

They said he should have known how to handle them safely.

And they tried a different strategy, too. They suggested that Garcia’s later medical problems weren’t caused by the burns. They claimed he had juvenile-onset diabetes and that his complications came from that condition.

But the jury wasn’t convinced.

The Jury Speaks

The first phase of the trial required a decision on responsibility. It took two days. The Starbucks verdict came back strong and nearly unanimous.

11–1 for the plaintiff.

Starbucks: 100% at fault.

Garcia: 0% responsible.

After that, the jury moved to the damages phase. California law requires only nine of the 12 jurors to agree on damages. They did.

The final amount was $50 million (compensatory damages plus attorney’s fees).

Rowley described the Starbucks verdict as a message. Starbucks had never taken responsibility for such a grave error in safety, and the jury had come in to take the kind of action that the company would not take.

Starbucks reacted by making a statement that was well thought. They claimed that they felt with Garcia. They also disagreed with the jury. They said the Starbucks Verdict damages were excessive. And they said they would appeal.

A Case That Feels Familiar

At the McDonald’s drive-through, Stella Liebeck purchased hot coffee. She got back to the car. She removed the top to add sugar and cream, but spilled the piping-hot beverage on her lap. It burned her thighs, crotch, & buttocks in the third degree.

It was, according to sources, dangerously hot, 180-190 degrees, or about 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than coffee prepared at home. Having coffee at 180 degrees is hot enough to burn someone seriously. In this case, it burned her down to the muscles and fatty tissue within seconds. She had skin grafts, spent eight days in the hospital, and suffered from partial disability for two years.

Liebeck did not seek a huge payout. She requested that McDonald pay her 20000 dollars. It would cover her medical bills. McDonald’s offered $800.

Only after repeated rejections did she sue.

At trial, evidence emerged showing that McDonald’s had received hundreds of burn complaints over many years. They knew their coffee was dangerously hot. They knew customers had been hurt. And they would not even get the temperature down to a safer level.

The jury gave her 200,000 dollars in compensatory damages. This was cut down to 160,000 since she was deemed to have contributed partly to the wrongdoing. The punitive damages amount of 2.7 million that created the media circus was eventually cut down to 480,000. The ultimate payoff was less than half a million to primarily pay her medical bills.

The public never heard those details. They heard jokes. They heard late-night monologues. They heard the myth of the “woman who got rich for spilling coffee on herself.”

But the McDonald’s case, like Garcia’s, was about something more basic:

Companies serving extremely hot beverages owe a duty of care to the people they hand those drinks to.

Why the Starbucks Verdict Matters

Some people will shrug at a case like this. Some will say accidents happen. Some will wonder why a cup of tea can lead to a $50 million verdict.

But cases like this force companies to reexamine daily routines that feel harmless but carry real risks. A hot drink is harmless until it isn’t. A small safety step is unnecessary until someone gets hurt.

Starbucks is a multibillion-dollar organization. It is dispensing millions of hot drinks daily. A policy as simple as “secure the cup in the carrier” exists for a reason. When that step is skipped, even once, someone can suffer lifelong injury.

This is not a case of a freak accident. It is concerning an error that would have been avoided with a couple of seconds of attention.

The Aftermath & What Comes Next

Starbucks will almost certainly follow through on its plan to appeal. Large corporations rarely accept large verdicts quietly. They fight. They negotiate. They drag cases into higher courts.

But the Starbucks verdict stands for now.

Garcia has been heard.

Rowley’s arguments were validated.

The case resolution by the jury is a matter of record.

This is not a celebratory win for Garcia. He didn’t win a championship. He didn’t achieve a dream. He simply received recognition for a trauma that reshaped his life.

And for Nick Rowley, this was another chapter in a long career built on fighting corporate negligence and bringing human stories to the center of the courtroom.

Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.

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Starbucks Verdict: Los Angeles jury awards $50 million to delivery driver burned by hot tea

Introduction

A Routine Delivery

Court Case

Rowley said the employee didn’t do that

Starbucks’ Defense

The Jury Speaks

A Case That Feels Familiar

Why the Starbucks Verdict Matters

The Aftermath & What Comes Next

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