Delta Air Lines is fighting back in a coffee burn lawsuit, which is being pursued by a passenger who claims she was left permanently scarred and disfigured after she received second-degree burns from a cup of “excessively hot” water that a flight attendant placed on a slanted tray table.
Filed by Kimberley Hickey last March in a Michigan district court, Delta is now requesting that the court throw the case out, claiming that not only was there nothing wrong with the tray table, but that Hickey was solely responsible for the water spilling on her lap.
Once the water did spill, Delta goes on to claim that Hickey, who is a registered nurse, chose to sit in her soaked clothing for a period of minutes and declined medical assistance from the veteran flight attendants who had served her.
Hickey had been traveling with Delta on an international transatlantic flight from Detroit to Amsterdam on August 19, 2024. Towards the end of the main meal service, the flight attendants were working their way through the cabin serving tea and coffee.
According to Hickey’s legal complaint, she requested a decaf coffee, and this was served as a sachet of instant coffee, alongside a cup of ‘excessively’ hot water that the flight attendants should have known was inappropriate.
The complaint alleges that the flight attendant placed the cup on Hickey’s tray, and due to the tray table being slanted, the cup slid off and the water tipped onto her lap, leaving her in excruciating pain and causing burn injuries to her lower abdomen and thighs.
Hickey is claiming up to $215,802 in compensation under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, which makes airlines liable for injuries sustained by passengers during the course of an international flight.
That is, however, unless the airline can prove the injury was actually due to the negligence or deliberate acts of the passenger.
Having carried out its own investigation and discovery, Delta is now requesting summary judgment, requesting that the case be dismissed, arguing that Hickey caused her own injury and that the flight attendants provided her appropriate care.
According to Delta’s attorneys, the tray table was working as intended when the flight attendant placed the cup of hot water on it, and the water only spilled when Hickey accidentally knocked the cup as she opened the sachet of instant coffee.
It’s then claimed that the flight attendants urged Hickey to go to the restroom in order to remove her pants and check whether she had been injured. Hickey allegedly declined this offer and placed napkins between her soaked pants and skin.
It wasn’t until about 30 minutes later that Hickey allegedly pressed the flight attendant call button and told the crew that she thought she had been burned and was developing blisters.
The crew offered Hickey cold water for the burns and requested assistance from any off-duty medical practitioners who might have been traveling as passengers on the flight.
Disputing Hickey’s original complaint, Delta says its crew also contacted Phoenix-based telemedicine service Mediaire for advice.
Delta accepts that it doesn’t have a set procedure for hot water spills and doesn’t provide lids for hot drinks served onboard its international flights. It also admits to not stocking burn cream or gauze in its medical kits, but says that the contents are in line with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements.
In any case, Delta argues that its flight attendants enacted the correct procedure for dealing with an in-flight medical incident as soon as they were made aware by Hickey that she had suffered a burn injury.
As well as the Montreal Convention claim, Hickey has also filed a state claim for negligence against Delta. The airline’s attorneys believe this claim is superseded by the Montreal Convention and should also be dismissed.
In many Montreal Convention lawsuits, airlines will very often try to settle these cases out of court, although we’ve seen Delta challenge a number of claims in recent years.
Interestingly, Delta initially fought a lawsuit by a Florida woman who claimed she was injured when a flight attendant pushed a drinks cart into her knee multiple times. In the end, however, Delta reached an undisclosed out-of-court settlement.
Burns from hot beverages served in-flight have been a frequent cause for Montreal Convention claims, and in many cases, the courts have sided with the victim.
