$1.95 Million Settlement for Burn Injuries

• Date: Spring 2001
• FIRM
• Settlement: $1.95 Million
• Practice Areas: Day Care Center Negligence, Hot Water Burns

The firm recently obtained a $1.95 million settlement for injuries to a Mendham infant scalded by hot water at a day care center. The accident occurred on Feb. 15, 1999, at a day care center run in a Bernardsville home. The 8-month-old plaintiff was at the kitchen sink, when the day care employee was distracted by another child and the infant plaintiff knocked the faucet with her foot, making the water hot. The child suffered first and second degree burns on her legs and feet that left her with scarred feet and toes and psychological damage. She was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston where she remained hospitalized for the next month and underwent multiple debridements and skin grafts. The child returned for two and a half months of outpatient care until June 1999 and probably will need further surgeries to stretch her burned and engrafted skin to accommodate her growth.