They “knew and should have known that such hot beverages posed a great hazard of causing just this type of incident and injuries”.
Roger Dreyer, a personal injury attorney in Sacramento who is representing the Burns family, said the youngster has been left with permanent scars from the incident, which happened two years ago.
He said that while people going to ski resorts assume a level of risk because of the sport, this case is different.
“You’re not assuming they’ll cook the hot chocolate to a temperature that’s not consumable to a human being,” he said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
A spokesman for Vail Resorts, the company that owns Heavenly Mountain, told AFP it was unable to comment on pending litigation.
Lawsuits that claim hot drinks are too hot are not uncommon in the litigious United States.
Last year, Starbucks was ordered to pay a customer US$50 million ($86m) for an injury related to a cup of tea.
That ruling was followed by at least two lawsuits lodged against the company, claiming drivers had suffered injuries when drinks had slopped in their laps.
A landmark legal ruling against McDonald’s in New Mexico in 1994 established something of a precedent for Americans suing fast food companies when 79-year-old Stella Liebeck was awarded over US$2.8 million after spilling hot coffee on herself.
Although the award was reduced on appeal, the case has often been cited as an example of the need to reform US tort law.
– Agence France-Presse