A man who burned himself while bowing his head in prayer over a sizzling skillet of steak fajitas at a New Jersey Applebee’s cannot sue for damages because the danger was “obvious”, a state appellate court ruled on Wednesday.

Hiram Jimenez sought to sue Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill after a 2010 incident at the chain restaurant’s Westampton location, when “he came in contact with a dangerous and hazardous condition, specifically, ‘a plate of hot food’,” according to court records.

On 4 March 2010, Jimenez met his brother at the restaurant and ordered a steak fajita skillet. The waitress brought Jimenez the dish, which he described in court records as “real dark”, “smoking, sizzling” and “real hot”. He claimed she told him to “enjoy his meal” and walked away without warning him of the dangers that sizzled below.

Before diving into the piping hot plate of steak and peppers, Jimenez bowed his head “close to the table” to pray. He then heard a loud, sizzling noise, followed by a “pop noise”, and felt a burning sensation in his left eye and on his face, according to court records.

He then described panicking, knocking the burning plate onto his lap, causing his perspective glasses to fall from his face. Finding himself unable to see properly, he said he tried to push the table away with his right arm and brush the burning food off his lap with the other.

In the kerfuffle, Jimenez banged his elbow on the table. He said he soon felt that he had “pulled something in his right arm”. He immediately stopped pushing the table, he said, because he “felt pain”.

His brother called for help, and some employees came to assist. A manager eventually provided an incident report to the brothers, on which Jimenez wrote that a “hot dish ... burned me after grease popped causing several burns to face, neck, and arms”.

Jimenez sued the chain in state superior court, claiming he suffered serious injury as a result of the restaurant’s negligence. None of the burns left scars, according to court records.

The case was dismissed by a lower court that found the danger posed by Jimenez placing his face near a sizzling skillet was “open and obvious”. On Wednesday, five years to the day after the incident, a two-judge appeals panel settled the matter, agreeing with the lower court’s findings.

The panel wrote in the ruling that the waitress was not responsible for warning the guest that “the food was sizzling hot and should be approached with due care”.

“Here, the danger posed by a plate of sizzling hot food was self-evident.”