Lake Tahoe ski resort scarred 5-year-old with hot chocolate

A prominent ski resort in South Lake Tahoe is facing a lawsuit after an incident involving an employee’s “malicious” actions resulted in a five-year-old girl suffering significant burns from hot chocolate.

Brittany Burns and Joshua Moran Burns filed the lawsuit in a California superior court last year against Heavenly Mountain Resort, alleging negligence. The lawsuit seeks compensation for medical costs and emotional distress.

According to a complaint reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Burns family visited the resort for a ski trip two years ago.

However, their daughter ended up with burns and scars across her body, said Roger Dreyer, the family’s attorney, to the Chronicle.

“She suffered bad burns down her chest and abdomen,” Dreyer said. “Now she has permanent scars.”

The lawsuit states that the family had ordered hot chocolate from a Sky Deck cafe at the resort during a skiing break.

The cashier, after adding whipped cream, slid the hot chocolate across the counter to the girl without a lid.

The girl tried to pick up the drink, but it was “excessively and unnecessarily hot.” She spilled it into her ski suit, which trapped the scalding liquid against her body.

The lawsuit claims the resort “knew and should have known that such hot beverages posed a great hazard of causing just this type of incident and injuries, including burns and/or other related injuries.”

The California Post contacted Dreyer for comments, while Vail Resorts Management Company stated they could not comment.

This case is reminiscent of other prominent hot drink incidents. Last year, Starbucks paid $50 million to a man whose genitals were severely burned after a hot tea spilled in his lap at a California drive-through.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters