He’s living his own real-life “Seinfeld” episode, but it’s no laughing matter.
A Brooklyn man who claims he suffered severe burns from a cup of McDonald’s coffee has gotten the green light to sue the fast-foot outlet that served him the scalding-hot beverage.
Boris Khanimov’s mishap is similar to one portrayed on Jerry Seinfeld’s classic sitcom, in which the Cosmo Kramer character burned himself with a cup of joe — then scored free coffee for life from the fictional “Java World” chain.
That scenario was itself inspired by an infamous 1992 case in which New Mexico granny Stella Liebeck burned herself with McDonald’s coffee and scored $2.7 million in damages, before settling with the hamburger chain for an undisclosed amount.
According to court papers, Khanimov, 70, filed suit in 2007 after he slipped and fell while carrying a just-purchased cup of coffee inside the McDonald’s restaurant on Court Street near Brooklyn Borough Hall.
The Russian immigrant, who works as a cobbler, got drenched with the steaming liquid, suffering second- and third-degree burns from his shoulder down to his belly button, leaving him scarred for life.
A judge tossed Khanimov’s case in 2012, but a Brooklyn appeals court re-instated his claims against franchisee 82 Court Street Corp. on Wednesday.
A panel of judges at the Appellate Division’s Second Department ruled the eatery failed to prove that Khanimov’s coffee wasn’t hotter than “reasonably expected limits.”
“82 Court produced no competent evidence to establish that the coffee served to the plaintiff on the day of the accident was within the range that would normally be expected by a typical consumer of coffee,” the judges wrote.
“There was no competent proof submitted by 82 Court…that the machine from which the coffee was dispensed was in good working order or operating within the temperature parameters provided by franchisor (McDonald’s).”
The ruling didn’t, however, revive Khanimov’s claims against the much deeper-pocketed McDonald’s Corp.
Khanimov’s lawyer, Serhiy Hoshovsky, said: “We are certainly disappointed that the court did not permit the case to proceed against McDonald’s because it was McDonald’s specifications that the franchisee who operated the restaurant was supposed to follow.”
Hoshovsky said it’s unclear exactly how hot the coffee was, but that the temperature obviously exceeded the 120 degrees permitted under prior court rulings.
“We believe it was more, because it caused him such severe burns,” Hoshovsky said.
“Certainly, if you drink coffee that hot it would cause burns inside.”
A lawyer representing McDonald’s and 82 Court didn’t return a message Thursday evening.