A lawsuit against a school district and its insurance company involving spilled soup has been dropped.

According to news reports, the family of an 8-year-old student at Powers Elementary School in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against the local school district and its insurance company after the student was burned by hot soup served by cafeteria workers. The suit stated that the hot soup was placed on the student’s tray and as she carried it to another table someone bumped her, causing the tray to tip and the hot soup to spill on her left forearm.

The suit charged that the district and its employees were “negligent in serving a substance at an unsafe temperature to an 8-year-old child, were negligent in failing to properly instruct its students on how to carry the unsafe substance, failing to properly warn its students of the unsafe substance and the dangers thereof, and failing to properly supervise its employees, agents and students at all times material to this complaint."

The school district countered that it follows food service regulations and trains teachers to supervise students in the cafeteria and reminds them how to act appropriately, such as walking in the cafeteria or to recess. The district, especially cafeteria employees, were upset the student was burned, but the district and its insurance company were "very adamant" they held no liability and were not willing to pay a nuisance settlement.

In the student's March 1 deposition, she said her arm no longer hurts, and she didn't have any scars from the burns.

"My client had made it very clear that we were not going to settle the case - that it was ridiculous," Margery Tibbetts-Wakefield, attorney for the district and its insurance company, said. "I think the plaintiffs finally saw that they were going to spend a lot of money and not get a recovery."

Under the agreement to dismiss the lawsuit, no monetary payments will be made and neither party will be required to pay the other’s legal fees or any other costs.

—Source: GazetteXtra.com (Janesville, WI)