McDonald's asked to pay ₹6.5 crore after US girl, 4, burned by ‘hot’ chicken nugget

A jury in South Florida awarded the little girl $800,000 in damages. His mother suffered from burns when a hot chicken McNugget fell on her lap as she exited a McDonald’s car service.

The family of Olivia Caraballo, who was 4 years old when was burned in 2019, is seeking $15 million in compensation. The jury delivered its verdict Wednesday after less than two hours of deliberation, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported.

Jury awards $400,000 in damages over the past four years and an additional $400,000 in future damages against McDonald’s America and its franchisee Upchurch Foods. In May, a separate jury held the company and its franchisee responsible for injuries that occurred outside a McDonald’s in Tamarack, near Fort Lauderdale.

“I’m really glad to hear Olivia’s voice and that the jury was able to give a fair verdict,” Olivia’s mother, philana Holmes, told reporters outside the courthouse.

McDonald’s lawyers argued that the child’s discomfort disappeared after the wound healed, which they said took about three weeks.

They argued that the girl’s mother had injuries and told the jury $156,000 should be paid for past and future damages.

“She still goes to McDonald’s, she still insists on going to McDonald’s, she’s still serving the car with her mom and buying chicken wings,” defense attorney Jennifer Miller said on Wednesday. “She’s not worried about injury. It’s all about being a mother.”

Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict.

In May, UpChurch Foods said the restaurant was following the rules when serving and serving food.

UpChurch Foods said in a statement, “We offer our condolences to the family in this unfortunate situation because we consider the safety of our customers to be one of the most important things. That’s why our restaurants follow the strictest food safety rules when cooking and eating foods like Chicken McNuggets.

The girl cried in pain and when she pulled into the parking lot she noticed the nugget was between Oliva’s hip and the seat,” UpChurch Foods said in a statement.

The mother stated that McDonald’s never warned her that the food could be unusually hot. The company has proven that Chicken McNuggets comply with food safety regulations that require their Chicken McNuggets to be hot enough to prevent salmonella contamination and that what happens to the food when it comes out of the drive-in window is beyond their control.

At the hearing in May, when both parties agreed that the results were due to heat, the family’s lawyers argued that the temperature was more than 200 degrees (93 degrees Celsius), while the defense said that it did not exceed 160 degrees (71 degrees Celsius).

Pictures of the mother’s burning were shown in court, along with the screams of the children.

McDonald’s said in May: “Our customers should continue to trust that McDonald’s will follow rules and procedures regarding the safety of chicken McNuggets.”

This case brings to mind the McDonald’s coffee case of the 1990s, which has become an urban legend about the bad case even though the judges and the judges decided it wasn’t unreasonable.

In 1992, 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, outside the restaurant, tried to freeze the glass using her leg while leaving the lid to add sugar, and coffee spilled on her leg and the hot coffee splashed on her leg burned her.

A New Mexico jury awarded 81-year-old Stella Liebeck $2.7 million in punitive damages. She was injured for the third time and was in the hospital for over a week, She Initially asked McDonald’s for $20,000 to pay his hospital bills, but the company went to court.

The judge later reduced the $2.7 million award to $480,000, which McDonald’s said was appropriate for “deliberate, reckless, reckless” and “terrible misconduct”.

More recently, in 2018, a lawsuit alleges that a young man suffered severe burns after being exposed to “dangerous-temperature” hot water at a McDonald’s restaurant in Oregon.

In another case, a woman sued Dunkin’ Donuts in New Jersey after she fell into a parking lot, spilled hot coffee on herself and burned herself. Along with the chain, it was reported as $522,000 in 2015.

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