Couple sues after Dairy Mart coffee cup breaks, burns woman

MORGANTOWN -- A woman and her husband are suing Chico Enterprises after the coffee she purchased burned her when the cup broke.

Dart Container Corporation and ten unnamed individuals were also named as defendants in the suit.

On Feb. 24, 2010, Carol S. Parsons was a customer at the Dairy Mart and was purchasing coffee when the Styrofoam container cup collapsed in its center, causing the lid to separate and the hot coffee to splash Parsons' neck, chest and left hand, according to a complaint filed Feb. 23 in Monongalia Circuit Court.

Parsons claims she was then treated at Ruby Memorial Hospital and was referred to the West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Styrofoam coffee cup that was sold to Parsons was not fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used, according to the suit.

Parsons claims the design of the Styrofoam cup and lid was defective and unreasonably dangerous because neither was structurally sound for hot products.

The Styrofoam cup and lid were defective in that the container cup and its components as designed, manufactured and assembled, will collapse and/or fail, which can result in the spilling of dangerous hot products onto customers, according to the suit.

Parsons and her husband, William J. Parsons, are compensatory and punitive damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. They are being represented by Mark E. Gaynes and Buddy Turner.

Monongalia Circuit Court case number: 12-C-110