Wawa agreed to pay $3 million to the family of a child who was burned so badly by hot coffee that her attorney claimed it looked like she had been “napalmed,” court records show.

On March 30, convenience store giant Wawa agreed to pay a total of $3 million to an unidentified minor and her family after her parents claimed she was badly burned by a cup of hot water that was knocked over by a Wawa employee two years ago, court records show.

The settlement will be split into $2.55 million for a trust and annuity for the child, who was only identified by the initials N.K., and an additional $450,000 for her mother, Roya Konzman, for emotional distress, according to the settlement agreement.

The Konzmans’ attorney David Mazie declined to comment on the settlement. Calls to Wawa’s attorney were not immediately returned.

The then-three-year-old’s parents, Carl and Roya Konzman, of Neptune, filed a federal lawsuit in May 2018 after they claim their daughter was burned during a visit to Wawa the month prior.

The Konzmans, through their attorney, claimed at the time they were at the Neptune Wawa on April 25 buying food and two cups of hot water for tea, which they poured from a hot-water dispensing machine. As they were paying for their items, a clerk bagging the items knocked over a water bottle, which in turn knocked over one of the cups of hot water, according to the complaint.

The cup burst, causing its top to come off and hot water to "splash all over (the child’s) upper body, arms and torso,” the lawsuit stated. The girl was taken by ambulance to a Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, which has a burn unit.

At the time, Mazie said that the girl’s burns were so severe that paramedics wanted to airlift the girl. The child ultimately suffered second and third-degree burns and could be scarred for life, the suit claimed.

The lawsuit alleged that even though the store clerk was negligent in spilling the water, the Wawa chain was responsible for both its employees and the temperature of the water, the suit alleges.

Lawsuits involving hot water have been a sporadic legal dispute since the 1992 landmark case involving a 79-year-old woman who suffered third-degree burns after accidentally spilling hot coffee in her lap from McDonald’s.

The woman, Stella Liebeck, claimed that the water that spilled on her was too hot at 180 to 190 degrees. Although Liebeck was initially awarded $3.8 million, she ultimately received $640,000.

Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.