Parents sue because of Hot nacho cheese

[Victor Kelly]

Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel

12:05 a.m. EST, February 11, 2011
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San Diego parents who say their young son suffered "severe burns" at the hands of scalding hot nacho cheese served to them during a family vacation have filed suit against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, records show.

In their suit, filed in California district court on Wednesday, parents Michael and Maria Harris said they were eating dinner at Disney World while on vacation in March when the cheese was spilled on their son's face.

"The cheese was scalding hot and resulted in severe burns" to the child, 4-year-old Isaiah Harris, the suit says. The suit alleges that Disney served the cheese "negligently and carelessly" and made "no effort" to regulate its temperature.

The suit says the child suffered "permanent scarring, pain and suffering" as a result of the burns, and his parents suffered "emotional distress" from witnessing his agony.

In their suit, the Harris family asks for the medical and legal costs incurred as well as punitive damages and "further relief as this Court deems just and proper."

Asked for comment, a Disney spokeswoman issued the following statement: "It's unfortunate when any child gets injured. We just received notice of the lawsuit and we are currently reviewing it."

Jeff Weiner can be reached at 407-420-5171, or @OSNightCops on Twitter.


Here we go again. The article says the nacho cheese was spilled on his face. Um, parents wake up and take responsibility for your own inactions. How often does one hear of nacho cheese being cold when served?

This is why the prices keep getting hiked all the time. What is next a lawsuit against Disney claiming injuries for blisters and sore feet?

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Wow...I agree people are sue happy...

I have a coworker who was staying at a DisneyWorld resort who was curling her hair with a curling iron when there was a power surge. The severe heat burned her hair and a huge chunck of it fell out, luckily she wasn't hurt. She didn't sue, but Disney reimbursed her for her trip, paid for her to come back on another free trip and paid for her to get hair extensions. So, they are pretty good of taking care of things when it is something legitimite.

[WDWfanatic742]

The times we live in...

[BrerGnat]

Wow...

[Momto3littlemice]

Okay, if the Disney employee had done the spilling... perhaps I could see this. But, it sounds like it was the child/ill supervised that did the spilling. I can't even fathom how someone would sue that their nacho cheese was too hot. In fact I bet it has to be at a hot enough temperature to be food -safe. That is discouraging.

[big blue and hairy]

The one part of this that I would like to see more about is the permanent scarring. Without proof, I don't believe it, but I will say nacho cheese shouldn't be that hot. Again, without proof, I don't believe them, and even with photographic evidence my first though would be, how long was that cheese on his face before you got it off, mom/dad??!

[magicofdisney]

The cheese at the fixin's bar at Cosmic Rays is exceptionally HOT. I've experienced it more than once. HOWEVER, it is NOT extremely fluid. I don't see how the kid could have stood in place long enough for scarring damage to occur.

Nothing good will come of this and we'll probably loose the cheese from the fixin's bar again!

How do we know it was Cosmic Rays. The cheese is self serve there but it says Disney served it.

"The cheese was scalding hot and resulted in severe burns" to the child, 4-year-old Isaiah Harris, the suit says. The suit alleges that Disney served the cheese "negligently and carelessly" and made "no effort" to regulate its temperature.

[VWL Mom]

How do we know it was Cosmic Rays. The cheese is self serve there but it says Disney served it.

There is an article from CBS/WKMG which names Cosmic Rays as the culprit and has a photo of the boy.

Honestly, I have looked at the picture a few times and it doesn't add up to me. I hope these parents didn't hurt this child to make a quick buck but something seems amiss here.

[brownie]

The boy is 4 years old, so I'd assume he didn't fill the cup. It was a paper cup, so whoever filled it should have been able to tell it was extremely hot. In another article, the boy spilled it when he tried to grab a tray to steady himself. I'm wondering why it looks like in the pictures that he stuck the cup on his face?

It's hard to know what really happened, and Disney will probably end up settling because it will cost less in the long run. You keep hot things away from young kids (sometimes it's best to keep it away from adults, too.) I feel bad for the boy, but it's hard to believe the story at this point.

[Gusgus]

I also agree that I have seen the "hot" sign by the cheese. Our family eats the cheese at the Starlight every visit and I have always found it on the cool side. Who knows what temperature it was this day.

That said, burn damage to children can be far worse than an adult. Several years ago I was visting my aunt and a neighbor stopped by with their toddler aged child. I literially thought the child was in a fire. The amount of their body that was burned and the severity of the DEEP scarring I thought could be caused by nothing else but a fire. The neighbor seeing my reaction told me she made coffee, left the coffee on the table, and the child pulled the cup on top of themselves. She said it was her fault for not paying attention and the child needs multiple painful surgeries. What a lot of guilt to carry around.

To this day I am astonished at how much damage one cup of coffee on a small child could cause. I wouldn't be surprised hot cheese could damage a child worse than an adult.

I know when I get hot cheese it's hot. Soup is hot. Coffee is hot and so is hot chocolate. I don't blame others for burning my tounge or my lip on my hot food. If my child was burned by any of these things that I had in front of me, I would blame myself for not being careful. I wouldn't blame someone else for making things I expect to be hot too hot.

Gusgus

[disneyboundagain]

No one will ever know how hot the cheese was on that day, at that point in time. I can say, with certainty, that this incident has affected cheese Disney-wide. I ordered nachos at Whispering Canyon yesterday, knowing about this thread. I grabbed a chip covered with cheese as soon as the plate hit the table, and the cheese was slightly warmer than ice. Needless to say, it ruined the nachos.