H
v. Hoang My Restaurant
This was a case involving the negligent operation of
a restaurant. Mr. and Mrs. H went to a local Vietnamese
restaurant accompanied by their two and a half year
old daughter A. The restaurant had a fish pond near
the enterance which made this a popular restaurant for
family outings. Mr. H is Vietnamese and Mrs. H is Guatemalan.
Early on in this visit young A went over to the fish
pond. While she was at the pond, a waiter came out of
the kitchen with a soup which the family had ordered,
served in traditional fashion with a flame below to
keep the contents scalding hot. The waiter observed
that the guests were not finished with their dishes
and left the soup tureen on the edge of a nearby table.
 As
A came running back to her family's table, she saw the
attractive dish with the flame and reached to touch
it. Before her parents could stop her, the scalding
hot soup fell onto her, burning her left upper thigh
and ankle.
It was our contention that the waiter had negligently
served the dangerously hot dish knowing that children
were present and that this was an attractive nuisance.
The defense allegation was that the parents had negligently
supervised the unruly child and that since Mr. H is
Vietnamese and knew what he was ordering with its accompanying
dangers, a scalding hot dish with an open flame.
"A" required numerous skin graft operations
by plastic surgery specialists due to the extensive
cheloid scarring which occurred. She will most likely
need more operations in the future to help reduce the
cheloid effect.
Mr. Mardirossian hired a focus group to better evaluate
the preceived comparative negligence attributable to
the parents. Although the focus group informed us that
there were serious liability problems, we were successful
in obtaining a settlement which would provide over $1,000,000.00
in a structured settlement. |
