A Florida jury found McDonald’s and a franchise owner liable for injuries to a 4-year-old when a very hot Chicken McNugget fell on her thigh and gave her second-degree burns.
The family of the girl sought $15,000 in damages from the incident that occurred in Jan. 2019 at a McDonald’s in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale.
Security video showed the mother of the girl being handed two Happy Meals in the drive-thru of the restaurant before she handed them to her children in the backseat.
The lawsuit claimed that the McNuggets were “unreasonably and dangerously hot” and that the company and the franchise operator had not trained their employees well enough to prevent the burns.
An attorney for McDonald’s argued that the restaurant had to heat the McNuggets to a very high temperature in order to meet state safety standards.
Graphic images showed the second-degree burn to the child.
“The reasonable, foreseeable, intended use is for a child to handle this box,” argued the family’s attorney Jordan Redavid. “The law implies a promise from a corporation, in this case, a child, that when they use it as intended, they’ll be safe. It wasn’t.”
The jury issued a split decision that found the franchise owner liable for negligence and McDonald’s liable for not providing safe food-handling instructions, but they rejected the claims that the product was defective and that McDonald’s was negligent.
The corporation offered a brief statement about the decision.
“This was an unfortunate incident, but we respectfully disagree with the verdict,” said the company. “Our customers should continue to rely on McDonald’s to follow policies and procedures for serving Chicken McNuggets safely.”
A second jury will decide how much McDonald’s and the franchise owner owes the mother for the incident.
Here’s a local news report about the story:
McDonald’s found liable for hot Chicken McNugget that burned girl
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