FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A South Florida jury awarded $800,000 in damages to a girl who received second-degree burns when a hot chicken McNugget fell on his leg as her mother walked away from a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Lawyers for the family of Olivia Caraballo, who was 4 when she was burned in 2019, were seeking $15 million in damages. Jurors reached their verdict after deliberating for less than two hours Wednesday, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.
The jury’s verdict form awarded $400,000 in damages over the past four years and another $400,000 for the future of McDonald’s USA and its franchise operator, Upchurch Foods. An independent jury decided in May that the company and the franchise owner were responsible for the injury, which occurred outside a McDonald’s in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale.
«I’m really happy that Olivia’s voice was heard and the jury was able to decide on a fair trial,» Olivia’s mother, Philana Holmes, told reporters outside the courtroom. «I’m happy with that. I honestly had no expectations, so this is more than fair to me.»
She testified Tuesday that Olivia, now 8, calls the scar on her inner thigh her «nugget» and is obsessed with having it removed, the newspaper reported.
McDonald’s lawyers argued that the boy’s discomfort ended when the wound healed, which they said took about three weeks. They maintained that the girl’s mother is the one with the scar problem and told the jury that $156,000 should cover damages, both past and future.
“She’s still going to McDonald’s, she’s still asking to go to McDonald’s, she’s still driving around the drive-thru with her mom, buying chicken nuggets,” defense attorney Jennifer Miller said in closing arguments Wednesday. “She doesn’t mind the wound. This is all the mom.»
Defense attorneys declined to speak after the verdict.
Holmes testified that he had bought Happy Meals for his son and daughter, who were sitting in the back seat and driving away when the nugget landed on the boy’s leg. He said the girl was screaming in pain, and when she pulled into a parking lot, she realized the nugget was lodged between Oliva’s thigh and her seat belt.
The mother testified that at no time did McDonald’s advise her that the food might be unusually hot. The company testified that they follow food safety rules, which require McNuggets to be hot enough to prevent salmonella poisoning, and that what happens to the food once it leaves the drive-thru is out of their control.
While both sides agreed during the trial in May that the nugget caused the burns, lawyers for the family argued that the temperature was above 200 degrees (93 degrees Celsius), while the defense said it did not exceed 160 degrees. (71 degrees Celsius).
Photos the mother took of the burn and sound clips of the boy’s screams were played in court.
The case may stir memories of the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit of the 1990s, which became something of an urban legend about seemingly frivolous lawsuits, despite a jury and judge finding otherwise.
A New Mexico jury awarded 81-year-old Stella Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages after she scalded herself in 1992 on hot McDonald’s coffee that spilled on her lap, burning her legs, groin and knees. buttocks, while trying to hold the cup with her legs. her as she lifts the lid to add cream outside a drive-thru.
He suffered third degree burns and spent more than a week in the hospital.
He had initially asked McDonald’s for $20,000 to cover hospital expenses, but the company went to court. A judge later reduced the award from $2.7 million to $480,000, which he said was appropriate for McDonald’s «willful, wanton, reckless» and «callous» behavior.