A jury in South Florida awarded $800,000 in damages to a young girl who suffered severe burns when a scalding Chicken McNugget fell on her leg as her mother drove away from a McDonald's drive-through.
Olivia Caraballo, who was 4 years old when she was scorched in 2019, was seeking $15 million in damages, according to attorneys for her family. The verdict was reached after less than two hours of deliberation on Wednesday, according to the South Florida SunSentinel.
Florida Girl Wins Lawsuit Against Mcdonald's
Per USA Today, the verdict form awarded McDonald's USA and its franchise operator, Upchurch Foods, $400,000 in damages for the past four years and an additional $400,000 for the foreseeable future.
In May, a separate jury determined that the company and franchise owner were responsible for the injury outside a McDonald's restaurant in Tamarac, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.
Olivia's mother, Philana Holmes, told reporters outside the courtroom, I'm actually just happy that they listened to Olivia's voice and the jury was able to decide a fair judgment."
She testified on Tuesday that 8-year-old Olivia calls the lesion on her inner thigh a "nugget" and is obsessed with removing it. McDonald's attorneys argued that the child's pain subsided when the laceration recovered, which they claimed took approximately three weeks.
They argued that the girl's mother had a problem with the disfigurement and told the jury that $156,000 should cover both past and future damages.
In her closing argument on Wednesday, defense attorney Jennifer Miller stated, "She is still going to McDonald's, she is still asking to go to McDonald's, and she is still traveling through the drive-thru with her mother to get chicken morsels. She is unaffected by the injury. This is all due to the mother."
UpChurch Foods stated in May that the restaurant adhered to protocol when preparing and serving the Happy Meal. Holmes testified that she had purchased Happy Meals for her son and daughter, who were in the rear seat, and that she was driving when the chicken nugget spilled on the child's leg.
She reported that Oliva shrieked in agony, and when she pulled over in a parking lot, she discovered that the nut was wedged between her thigh and the seat belt. The mother testified that McDonald's never warned her that the food could be unusually heated.
According to CBS News, McDonald's testified that they adhere to food safety regulations requiring McNuggets to be sufficiently hot to prevent salmonella infection but cannot control what happens to the food after it departs the drive-thru window.
During the trial in May, both parties concurred that the nugget caused the burns; however, the family's attorneys argued that the temperature was above 200 degrees (93 Celsius), whereas the defense stated that it was no more than 160 degrees (71 Celsius).
In court, the mother's photographs of the burn and audio recordings of the child's cries were displayed. McDonald's stated in May that consumers should continue to rely on the company to adhere to policies and procedures for serving Chicken McNuggets safely.
Lawsuits Against McDonald's
The case may evoke memories of the McDonald's coffee litigation of the 1990s, which became a type of urban legend about frivolous lawsuits even though a jury and judge found it to be meritless.
Stella Liebeck, 81, was awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages by a New Mexico jury after she was burned in 1992 by scalding coffee from McDonald's that overflowed onto her lap as she attempted to stabilize the cup with her legs while prying the lid off to add cream outside a drive-thru. She sustained third-degree burns and was hospitalized for more than a week.
She initially requested $20,000 from McDonald's to fund hospital expenses, but the company went to court. A judge subsequently reduced the $2.7 million award to $480,000, citing McDonald's "willful, wanton, irresponsible, and callous" conduct as justification.
In 2018, a lawsuit alleged that an adolescent was severely burned after being served hot water at an "unreasonably hazardous temperature" at an Oregon McDonald's.
In a separate case, a woman in New Jersey sued Dunkin' Donuts after collapsing in a parking lot, spreading scalding coffee, and burning herself. In 2015, she reportedly reached a settlement with the chain for $522,000.
