A South Los Angeles woman is suing Starbucks for negligence after claiming she was scalded at a drive-thru window in Lynwood.

Muriel Evans filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Compton, claiming a defective coffee cup lid and the excessive heat of her drink caused severe burns after a barista spilled coffee on her lap.

Evans is seeking general and special damages, including her medical, hospital and incidental expenses, as well as punitive damages to “make an example” of Starbucks. She claims the company was indifferent to “the obviously dangerous mix of extremely high temperatures combined with defective lids.”

“Starbucks has shown a reckless disregard for the safety of its customers by continuing to serve piping hot coffee in defective cups despite countless reports and warnings,” Evans’ attorney Nick Rowley said in a statement.

A Starbucks representative responded briefly: “We pride ourselves on making our beverages with care and delivering them safely to our customers. We take all claims seriously, but will not comment on ongoing litigation.”

Read more: Starbucks replaces its CEO and appoints Chipotle boss as company boss

According to the lawsuit, on August 25, 2022, Evans drove into the Starbucks drive-thru and ordered a coffee.

A Starbucks employee then “mishandled” the coffee and spilled it on Evans’ lap, causing the hot liquid to run down her left leg, the lawsuit says.

Evans said she suffered severe and permanent burns to her body, as well as nerve damage and disfigurement.

Evans’ legal team believes the temperature of the coffee was 190 degrees, just below boiling point.

Previous Starbucks guides have listed most hot drinks at between 150 and 170 degrees.

Read more: Supreme Court rules in Starbucks case and limits judges’ power to protect fired union leaders

At 120 degrees Celsius, it takes five to ten minutes for a third-degree burn to develop; at 131 degrees Celsius, it takes 10 to 30 seconds, and at 140 degrees Celsius, it takes two to five seconds, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

As for the lids, there are were various media contributions and threads and videos complaining about Starbucks lids and how easy they are to remove, including on Reddit And TikTok.

Starbucks is facing similar lawsuits over lid problems.

A San Fernando Valley teenager In June, she filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming she burned herself on hot tea. The teenager’s drink came from two mugs, but the lid popped off, the lawsuit says.

“Muriel Evans suffered severe burns because Starbucks put cost savings above basic customer safety,” Rowley said. “We intend to hold Starbucks fully accountable for their blatant disregard and gross negligence.”

Sign up for Essential California to get news, features and recommendations from the LA Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.