Olga Kuznetsova, from the Moscow-suburb of Khimki, started legal proceedings against the company after hot coffee spilled over her in her local McDonald's on May 5, 2004. She claimed a swinging door hit her while she was walking onto the restaurant's terrace with a full tray and demanded 900,000 rubles ($33,300) in damages.
Pyotr Dombrovitsky, Kuznetsova's lawyer, said today's hearings had been postponed since the plaintiff had failed to attend, saying her daughter had fallen ill.
Originally, Kuznetsova only wanted 60,000 rubles in damages from the company but McDonald's lawyers said she had nobody to blame but herself because the paper cup carried a warning that the coffee was hot, which prompted her to go to court.
This is a rare case involving a fast food chain in Russia, though America has accumulated experience of litigation with restaurants. Stella Libeck, 79, from New Mexico won $125,000 in damages after burning herself by spilling hot coffee from McDonald's in February 1994 when she was in her car.
