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A woman and her niece are seeking justice after a Taco Bell manager allegedly doused the Black woman and girl with boiling water on June 17 in Dallas, Texas. The employees reportedly refused to fix the error they made with the alleged victims’ order. They are now suing the Dallas fast-food restaurant, the Taco Bell employees, and the regional franchise entity, North Texas Bells.
Civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump filed the lawsuit on behalf of the victims, Brittany Davis and her underaged niece filed under the name C.T. In the case, Davis and C.T. ordered food at the Taco Bell drive-thru with their bill coming to $30. The employees prepared their order incorrectly twice, resulting in an employee allowing the women to enter the closed and locked dining room. Davis and her niece, two paying customers, were denied the decency to have their order corrected.
Surveillance video showed Davis and C.T. conversing with employees for about ten minutes about why they couldn’t just fix their order. The lawsuit stated that the employees became combative. The victims walked around to go behind the counter and were met by the restaurant’s manager, a Hispanic female named Jane Doe in the court document, who immediately threw a pitcher of boiling water and rushed to the back to refill the pitcher for a second attempt.
“Our hearts break for these two victims whose lives are forever changed because of the horrific and damaging actions by the Taco Bell manager and the larger entities that failed to protect the safety of their customers,” Crumb and attorney Paul Grinkie of McCathern Law said in a statement. “Not only did Brittany and C.T. suffer physical trauma because of the burns, but they will now live with the psychological trauma that comes with an attack like this. Corporations have a duty to employ quality and stable employees who hold safety as the highest priority.”
The two women stumbled to the ground but got back up, hurrying to the locked doors in an attempt to escape before another attack. As they left, the employees followed them outside and laughed, taunted and clapped at them before they left the premises.
Family member Kira Davis was also in the car they were inside and drove them to the hospital, where the 16-year-old jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the emergency room naked. Davis, with a history of seizures, had about 10 of them that night and was “sedated, intubated, and care-flighted to Parkland’s ICU burn unit in Dallas.” Her niece was transported to Parkland by ambulance.
The two said they felt as though they were “burning from the inside out.” Hospital staff had to cut Davis’ clothes off because they were stuck to her skin before being transported to Parkland.
According to the lawsuit, Davis and C.T. sustained second and third-degree burns to large parts of their bodies. And Davis suffered brain damage due to the seizures.
C.T. had scalded skin on her face, chest, legs, arms and stomach. The burns caused scarring and discoloring, forever impacting the young girl’s self-image. The lawsuit also claimed that the mother of the 16-year-old had to remove mirrors in the house because her daughter couldn’t “bear to see her own face.
The victims are suing for more than $1 million in damages for the employees’ display of gross negligence and the company’s failure to teach their employees a speck of human decency and customer service.
Dallas Police Department said they are investigating two aggravated assault charges after one of the employees claimed they were also assaulted.
Grinke denied the allegation and said, “it is hard to imagine a scenario where it would be okay to pour scalding water all over a female minor.”
Taco Bell gave a statement to NBC News saying that the safety of their workers and customers is taken seriously. They also said they contacted the franchise owner and operator.
“When C.T. and Brittany venture into the world, they will constantly feel the pain and shame of the scars they will bear,” the lawsuit stated. “All of this could have been prevented had Taco Bell placed human decency and customer service over a few dollars that it would have cost to get Plaintiffs’ order right.”