San Jose doctor suing Los Gatos restaurant over spicy Dragon Balls cites overseas wedding, gets trial delayed

A San Jose doctor suing a Thai restaurant in Los Gatos over claims its Dragon Balls appetizer was so spicy it burned her internally has received a delay in the trial, citing her need to attend a wedding in Vietnam.

“It would be difficult and distracting for me to have a trial starting the day after I return from overseas,” neurologist Harjasleen Walia wrote in a Jan. 14 declaration to Santa Clara County Superior Court.

This week, Judge Evette Pennypacker, who is overseeing the case, agreed to reschedule the trial to Nov. 9, from March 23.

Walia in 2023 sued Coup de Thai — a fixture on the main drag of wealthy Los Gatos since 2014 — and alleged that during a 2021 meal, the restaurant’s Dragon Balls caused chemical burns to her vocal cords, esophagus and the inside of her right nostril, leaving her with “permanent injuries.”

The restaurant in a 2023 court filing denied Walia’s claims.

Walia’s lawsuit accuses Coup de Thai of gross negligence. Also targeted in the lawsuit were the restaurant’s owner, the chef who cooked the appetizer, the waitress who took Walia’s order, and unspecified others who “in any way influenced, designed, prepared, or participated in creating the Dragon Ball dish,” according to the lawsuit. Walia is seeking unspecified damages, plus compensation for medical expenses and alleged lost income.

In her declaration, Walia said she was a member of the wedding party for a close relative who is “like a daughter to me.” Walia said her 83-year-old father and 80-year-old mother would not be able to travel to Vietnam without her escorting them. “They are the last of the oldest generation in my family and it is very important in my culture that they be present at the wedding,” Walia said.

Walia aded that the airline tickets are “prepaid, non-refundable and very expensive.”

Pennypacker did not provide a detailed explanation of her decision to grant the delay, but noted both sides had sought it.

Walia’s lawyer David Shane, who took on the case last June after her previous attorney stopped representing her, said in a court filing that he was a sole practitioner and had a different trial starting March 23 in San Francisco. The previous lawyer told this news organization he could not comment on why he left the case.

A lawyer for Coup de Thai, Sheryl Traum, said in a filing last week that the restaurant’s previous lawyer had also withdrawn from the case, after being promoted to management at her firm. Traum said she needed more time to obtain additional information to give to dozens of witnesses she plans to call during the trial, including ear, nose and throat specialists, and food-safety experts.

Traum said she hired a medical expert to review medical records Walia provided that purport to document the damage from the $11 chicken-meatballs dish. The expert — an ear, nose and throat specialist — will examine Walia and analyze her “alleged injuries and health condition,” Traum said.

Walia, who works at HeadacheAwayMD Brain & Spine Center in west San Jose, claimed in her lawsuit that because the Dragon Balls were advertised as spicy, she asked her server to have them made with less spice because “she does not tolerate spicy foods.” The server said the cook would make the dish less spicy, the lawsuit alleged.

But almost immediately after she tucked into the Dragon Balls, Walia “felt her entire mouth, the roof of her mouth, her tongue, her throat and her nose burn like fire,” and her “eyes and nose watered, and she began coughing,” the lawsuit claimed.

The lawsuit blamed Thai “bird’s eye” chilis for making Walia’s Dragon Balls allegedly “unfit for human consumption.” The restaurant’s owner, chef, server and others involved with the appetizer “failed to take precautions by consulting with health officials or emergency service personnel regarding the risks associated with serving too much Thai chili in an appetizer like Dragon Balls,” the lawsuit claimed.

A supervisor at Coup de Thai, contacted by this news organization soon after the lawsuit was filed, said Walia was the first patron to say they had been burned by a dish and required medical treatment. Dragon Balls, the supervisor said, can’t be made “mild” because the chili is inside the balls. Patrons wanting Dragon Balls but saying they can’t handle spicy foods are typically encouraged to order a different dish, the supervisor said.

In a November 2023 court filing, Walia claimed that a later admission — the filing does not specify when or by whom — made clear how she was allegedly injured. “A new employee who prepared the dish made an error and added additional peppers, rather than reducing them as requested,” the filing said.

Dr. Kelly Johnson-Arbor, a doctor at the Washington, D.C.-based National Capital Poison Center, told this news organization earlier that eating Thai chilis — spicier than cayenne peppers but not as spicy as habaneros — can cause mouth and throat irritation but “are not associated with permanent tissue damage.”