BBQ Sauce Burn Lawsuit Ends in $2.8M Verdict for Bill Miller

The Bill Miller BBQ sauce lawsuit ended on January 17, 2025, when a Bexar County jury found the San Antonio-based chain 100 percent negligent for serving barbecue sauce hot enough to cause second-degree burns and awarded customer Genesis Monita roughly $2.8 million. The verdict has since drawn two more burn lawsuits from other customers, a federal coverage fight with Bill Miller’s insurer, and new “caution: contents are hot” stickers at the chain’s restaurants.

What Happened in the Drive-Thru

On May 19, 2023, Monita, then 19, pulled into a Bill Miller Bar-B-Q drive-thru near Loop 410 and Old Pearsall Road in San Antonio and ordered breakfast tacos with a side of barbecue sauce. In the parking lot, she tried to open the container to use the sauce. It was so hot she dropped it, and the sauce spilled onto her right thigh. She was left with second-degree burns and a permanent scar.¹

Two facts drove the case. The sauce was served at 189 degrees Fahrenheit, above Bill Miller’s own 165-degree corporate policy and well above the 135-degree state food safety guideline cited by Monita’s attorney. And the sauce came in a thin plastic cup rather than the Styrofoam container specified in the company’s operations manual, which meant the cup itself was dangerously hot to hold.²³

The Verdict and Damages

Monita filed suit in Bexar County District Court in October 2023, represented by attorney Lawrence Morales II. After a January 2025 trial, the jury deliberated less than two hours before finding Bill Miller entirely at fault and assigning Monita zero responsibility.¹

The award totaled roughly $2.8 million:

Prejudgment interest pushed the total higher. Defense attorney Barry McClenahan told the San Antonio Express-News after the verdict, “The company will do better, I’m sure, after getting this message.”⁶

How Each Side Argued the Case

Morales told jurors that Bill Miller’s own staff had violated the chain’s written policies on both temperature and cup type. He argued that Monita had eaten the sauce “a hundred times” before without incident, and that 189 degrees was 54 degrees above the state guideline.⁷

McClenahan told the jury that Monita’s own negligence caused her injuries. He argued that the 165-degree figure was a food safety minimum, not a ceiling, and that no company policy prohibited heating sauce to 189 degrees. He also pointed to the chain’s record: between a prior 2021 burn incident and Monita’s injury, Bill Miller had dispensed more than 2.2 million ounces of barbecue sauce without another reported burn. “At Bill Miller’s, the sauce is always hot, and our customers know that,” he said. “What would we have warned Ms. Monita of that she did not already know?”⁶⁸

Where the Case Stands

The verdict has not become a final judgment. Bill Miller has asked the trial court to disregard the jury’s answers and enter a “take-nothing judgment,” which would erase the award. Monita’s team is seeking a final judgment of roughly $1.7 million plus interest, acknowledging that Texas caps punitive damages by statute. As of mid-2025, no hearing on those competing motions had been scheduled.⁹

The Insurance Coverage Fight

On April 7, 2026, Bill Miller’s insurer, Mt. Hawley Insurance Company, sued the chain in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asking the court to declare that it owes no duty to defend or indemnify Bill Miller for the Monita verdict.⁴

Mt. Hawley says Bill Miller never told it about the incident or the lawsuit until January 21, 2025, four days after the verdict. The policy carried a $1 million per-occurrence self-insured retention and required immediate written notice for claims involving serious burn injuries, punitive damages, or damages above half of that retention. The insurer contends the near two-year silence kept it from participating in the defense or exploring settlement. It also argues that punitive damages are not insurable under New York law. Mt. Hawley formally disclaimed coverage on March 26, 2025. Bill Miller had not responded as of mid-2026.⁴

Other Customers Suing Over Sauce Burns

Two additional lawsuits have followed the Monita verdict.

On April 22, 2025, Bexar County resident Angelica Ochoa sued the chain over an October 25, 2023, incident at a Bill Miller near North Loop 1604 East and O’Connor Road. She alleges the sauce was hot enough to warp the plastic lid before spilling onto her right leg, causing second-degree burns. Her petition faults the restaurant for not using the 6-ounce Styrofoam cup wrapped in aluminum foil that the operations manual calls for. She is seeking more than $1 million.¹⁰¹¹

On May 29, 2025, Rose Roque sued on behalf of herself and her four-year-old son. According to the complaint, on May 30, 2024, an employee at the Bill Miller at 7140 NW Loop 410 set an uncovered container of hot sauce on a tray handed to the child’s grandfather. The sauce spilled onto the boy, causing second-degree burns to multiple areas including his face. The suit accuses Bill Miller of “habitually and routinely overheating barbecue sauce to make it unreasonably dangerous” and seeks more than $1 million.⁹

What Bill Miller Changed

Within weeks of the verdict, bright yellow circular stickers reading “CAUTION: CONTENTS ARE HOT” began appearing on drive-thru menus and takeout bags. By February 2025, the stickers had been observed at multiple Bill Miller locations and at the chain’s sister restaurant, Laguna Madre Seafood Company.¹²¹³

Bill Miller has not publicly tied the stickers to the verdict, and there is no public indication that the chain changed its sauce temperature or container policies. Morales said after the stickers went up that it remained to be seen whether the company would address what he called the underlying issues: the heat of the sauce and the cup it goes into.¹²

1
CBS Austin. Woman Seeks $1M in Damages After Burns From Hot Barbeque Sauce at Bill Miller Bar-B-Q
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KSAT. Bexar County Jury Finds Bill Miller 100% Negligent for Serving Dangerously Hot BBQ Sauce
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The Independent. Bill Miller Lawsuit Award Burns Hot Sauce
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Insurance Business Magazine. Insurer Fights $2.8 Million BBQ Sauce Burn Verdict Over Insured’s Silence
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Fox 7 Austin. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Lawsuit Burn Hot Sauce
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San Antonio Express-News. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Hot Barbecue Sauce Lawsuit
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Post Crescent. Hot Sauce Too Hot to Handle Nets Texas’s Bill Miller Bar-B-Q a Lawsuit
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Spectrum News. Bill Miller Barbecue Sauce Trial
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San Antonio Express-News. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Hot Barbecue Sauce Suit
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San Antonio Express-News. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Sauce Burns Lawsuit
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MySanAntonio. Texas Barbecue Sauce Burns Lawsuit
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San Antonio Express-News. Bill Miller Menu Caution Hot Stickers
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KSAT. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Adds Warning Labels After $2.8 Million Lawsuit