A Night Out, an Explosion, and a $1 Million Recovery for a Husband and Wife

They were guests at a friend’s event. A husband and wife, standing at the heated buffet like everyone else in line.

Then a server employed by the venue poured an industrial size can of butane fuel jelly directly onto the open flame of a buffet warmer, and it exploded.

The explosion burned them both. Second degree and partial thickness burns to the face and body. Burn treatment, wound care, and plastic surgery consultations followed. Some scarring is permanent. One moment at a buffet table changed how they look, how they feel, and how they move through the world.

This is what a premises liability case looks like when a business gets safety wrong. Under Georgia law, a venue that opens its doors to guests owes them a duty to keep the premises safe, and it answers for the negligence of its own employees. Pouring flammable fuel onto an open flame in a room full of guests is not a freak accident. It is a failure of basic training and supervision. And here, the venue’s owners admitted fault to our clients after it happened.

So liability was clear. The fight was elsewhere: the coverage was limited.

That is the hard reality in many serious injury cases. The available insurance does not match the harm. When that happens, the job is to make sure not one dollar of that coverage stays on the table. We documented everything: the medical records, the surgical estimates, and the photographs of the burns, which by themselves told the insurer what a jury would see. We presented a demand that left the insurance company no honest argument for paying less, and a clear picture of what refusing would cost.

We recovered $1 million for this husband and wife, the full available insurance coverage.

No settlement erases scars. What it does is pay for the surgeries still ahead, replace what was lost, and let two people stop fighting an insurance company and start healing.

Burned or Injured at a Business in Georgia?

All businesses, including restaurants, event venues, and banquet halls, are responsible for what their employees do and how safely they operate. If you were burned or seriously hurt as a guest at a business, the business owner’s insurer is not on your side, and the coverage question matters more than most people realize. Get answers from an experienced burn injury attorney before doing anything.

Call Flanagan Law, P.C. We will tell you honestly what your case involves and what it will take.

Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is different and is decided on its own specific facts and legal circumstances.