Suing a Restaurant Over Burns From Improperly Bagged Hot Food

Attorney Answer

Yes, you can bring a negligence claim, and the specific detail you gave — the container was stood on its side in the bag rather than laid flat — is the strongest fact you have. The realistic limit on this case is not liability; it is that a first-degree burn treated at urgent care produces modest damages.

The governing law. R.C. 2305.10(A) requires an action for bodily injury or for injuring personal property to be brought within two years after the cause of action accrues. That is your window.

There is a second framework worth knowing about. If the claim is framed around a defective container or defective packaging rather than around how the employee handled your order, the Ohio Product Liability Act, R.C. 2307.71 to 2307.80, may come into play, and whether it displaces an ordinary negligence claim in a situation like yours should be confirmed before anyone relies on it. Practically, your account describes a service failure — a container of hot gravy placed upright in a bag so that it opened when lifted — rather than a container that was defectively designed. That is ordinary negligence territory.

Your own share of fault matters. Ohio reduces what you recover by your own percentage of responsibility, and if you are found more than half at fault you recover nothing. Expect the restaurant to argue you contributed by pulling forward, reaching into the bag, and lifting the container over your lap. That argument does not defeat you, but it is why the specifics of how the bag was handed to you and what you could see matter.

A word about the size of this claim. A first-degree burn is the least severe burn classification, and one urgent care visit is a small medical bill. I am not going to put a number on your case and neither should anyone else, but you should go in understanding that attorneys who work on contingency screen cases by the value of the damages, and a claim of this size may be one you pursue yourself in small claims court rather than through a firm. That is not a comment on whether you were wronged. It is about how these cases get handled.

What you can do

1. Photograph the burns now and again every few days as they change. Burn photographs taken at different stages are the most persuasive evidence in a case like this, and the injury will fade. 2. Photograph the bag, the container, and the lid if you still have them. Do not throw them away. 3. Get the urgent care records and the itemized bill, including the diagnosis. 4. Report the incident to that Wendy's location in writing and ask for an incident report number. Restaurants document these, and the report is evidence. 5. Ask, in writing, that the location preserve the drive-through video from that date and time. Store footage is typically overwritten within weeks, and once it is gone the case is your word against theirs. 6. Write down your account while it is fresh, including the detail that you received two bags, that neither appeared to contain the biscuits and gravy, and that the container was oriented upright. 7. Keep track of every out-of-pocket cost and any work you missed. 8. Do not accept coupons, a gift card, or a small check in exchange for signing anything. A release ends the claim permanently.

⏱ Time limits apply. Under R.C. 2305.10(A) an action for bodily injury must be brought within two years after the cause of action accrues. When that period began depends on your specific facts. The far more urgent deadline is the video — send the preservation request to the restaurant immediately, because surveillance footage is routinely overwritten long before any statute of limitations is close.