FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — McDonald’s and a franchise owner are at fault after a hot Chicken McNugget from a Happy Meal landed on a girl’s leg, causing second-degree burns, a jury in South Florida found. Florida.
A second jury will determine how much McDonald’s USA and its franchise, Upchurch Foods, will pay the girl and her mother. nbc miami informed.
Thursday’s decision was split: Jurors found the franchise owner liable for negligence and failure to warn customers about the risk of hot food, and McDonald’s USA liable for failing to provide safe food handling instructions. McDonald’s USA was not found to be negligent and the jury dismissed the argument that the product was defective.
«This was an unfortunate incident, but we respectfully disagree with the verdict,» McDonald’s USA said in a statement. «Our customers must continue to trust McDonald’s to follow policies and procedures to serve Chicken McNuggets safely.»
The jury heard two days of testimony and argument about the 2019 episode that left the 4-year-old girl with a burned upper thigh before blaming McDonald’s.
Philana Holmes testified that she bought Happy Meals for her son and daughter at a drive-through window at a McDonald’s in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale, the South Florida SunSentinel reported. She said that she delivered the food to her children, who were in the back seat.
After she left, her daughter started screaming. The mother testified that she did not know what was wrong until she stopped to help the girl, identified in court as Olivia, the newspaper reported. She saw the burn on the girl’s leg and took photos of it with her iPhone, which included audio clips of the girl’s screams.
The sound of the girl’s screams played in the court.
The boy, who is autistic, did not testify, the newspaper reported.
McDonald’s lawyers noted that the food had to be hot to avoid salmonella poisoning and that the nuggets should not be pressed between the seatbelt and human flesh for more than two minutes.
The girl’s parents sued, saying McDonald’s and the franchise owner failed to properly train employees, warn customers about the «dangerous» temperature of the food, and failed to cook the food to a much higher temperature than intended. necessary.
While both sides agreed that the nugget caused the burns, attorneys for the family argued that the temperature was above 200 degrees, while the defense said it was no higher than 160 degrees.
This isn’t the first time customers have sued McDonald’s over burns they say were caused by items on the fast-food restaurant’s menu.
In a well-known case from the early 1990s, Stella Liebeck, 79, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, sued McDonald’s for hot coffee spilled on your lap in the car. She received significant injuries that required hospitalization and skin grafts.
After a trial, the jury found Liebeck only 20% at fault, and was awarded $160,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages.