Texas Restaurant Ordered To Pay $2.8M To Customer Burned By Hot Barbecue Sauce

Genesis Monita suffered second-degree burns.

A jury has ordered a Texas barbecue chain in San Antonio to pay a customer $2.8 million after she was burned by barbecue sauce the restaurant served her.

According to The Dallas Morning News, Genesis Monita filed the lawsuit after she was badly burned after spilling the sauce that Bill Miller Bar-B-Q served her in May 2023.

Monita received second-degree burns on her right leg after she ordered breakfast tacos with barbecue sauce through the restaurant drive-thru. After receiving her order, the 19-year-old pulled into a nearby parking lot to eat the taco. As she removed the sauce from the bag, she dropped it due to its hotness.

The policy of Bill Miller Bar-B-Q states that the barbecue sauce should be served at a minimum of 165 degrees. That morning, the sauce was reportedly 189 degrees. Monita’s attorney, Lawrence Morales II, said she should have been warned about the temperature of the sauce and that the sauce should have been placed in a styrofoam container, not a plastic one.

“This sends a message that companies cannot put profits over safety,” Morales told the Dallas Morning News. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q could appeal the decision.

Morales said another other woman was burned after she spilled some barbecue sauce on the abdomen at the same Bill Miller Bar-B-Q two years before Monit’s incident.

Fox 7 Austin reported that the jury, which consisted of six men and six women, decided on Friday, Jan. 17, that Monita should be paid $900,000 for past and future mental anguish, physical pain, and impairment. More than $25,000 will be used to pay for her medical expenses.

The jury also awarded her $1.9 million in punitive damages after finding the restaurant was “grossly negligent.”