SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Heavenly Ski Resort is set to go to trial sometime next winter after a San Francisco family is suing them for scalding their 5-year-old with hot chocolate.

The lawsuit was filed by Brittany Burns and Joshua Moran Burns, who say that two winters ago, their daughter was badly scalded and permanently scarred after being served a beverage that was too hot.

During a ski break at the Sky Deck café, Burns says she ordered hot chocolate for her daughter, which was then served at the takeout counter. According to the filed complaint, the cashier sprayed whip cream on top and then gave the drink, without a lid, directly to the child at the takeout window.

When she attempted to drink it, she spilled the drink inside her ski suit. This trapped it against her body and led to burns down her chest and abdomen, which have scarred over.

Personal injury attorney Roger Dreyer, who is representing the family in the case, told the Chronicle, “You’re not assuming they’ll cook the hot chocolate to a temperature that’s not consumable to a human being.”

While the complaint doesn’t specify the temperature of hot chocolate at the ski resort, the lawsuit claims they “knew and should have known that such hot beverages posed a great hazard of causing just this type of incident and injuries.” It also alleges that serving a hot beverage to a minor constitutes known, intentional, malicious conduct without due care for the injury.

The history of hot beverages and lawsuits raise questions about consumer protections. The McDonald’s coffee lawsuit of 1992 saw Stella Liebeck receive $640,000 in damages after the chain’s coffee gave her third-degree burns that required skin grafting.

Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and even Southwest Airlines have faced lawsuits for hot beverages in the past two decades, especially around ensuring the hot liquid won’t spill on consumers. Last year, Starbucks was ordered to pay $50 million to a delivery driver, who was burned badly when an employee failed to secure a drink lid.

According to the court docket, a cross complaint was filed by Vail and Heavenly Mountain Resorts in July of last year. However, Vail does not provide comment on pending litigation.

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.