Cop Sues Starbucks After Spilling Hot Coffee on His Lap

A police officer is suing Starbucks after he spilled hot coffee on himself in 2012.

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A North Carolina police officer is suing Starbucks a quarter million dollars after he received third-degree burns from spilling a free cup of coffee on his lap in 2012. 

Matthew Kohr, a lieutenant in the Raleigh Police Department, said his testimony this Wednesday that he "didn't know it was that hot," according to ABC News. Well, that's for sure—according to ABC, the spilled coffee gave Kohr thirddegree burns, which in turn caused a flare-up of his Crohn's disease, which in turn caused anxiety, sleeplessness, and intimacy problems with his wife.

Sounds like a hefty price to pay for spilling some coffee on yourself. And Kohr originally thought that pricetag is somewhere in the millions of dollars.

Kohr told the jury that he originally wanted to ask Starbuck for much more money. He said, "We said, 'Well, what's our life worth? What's a year and a half or two years of your life worth?' I thought that was worth $10 million.'

However, he and his wife can only seek $750,000 in compensation in a civil suit, local news station WRAL reports. Bummer.

Starbucks' lawyers are arguing that Kohr's health problems started much earlier. Tricia Derr, their attorney, said "Ladies and gentlemen, we don't believe it had anything to do with a free cup of coffee."

The coffee was free because Starbucks gives free coffee to officers in uniform. 

[via the Huffington Post]

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