TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida jury has awarded $800,000 in damages to a family that alleged hot chicken McNuggets left a 4-year-old girl with severe burns.
The Broward County jury deliberated for just two hours over how much the family should receive, according to WTVJ. Their decision comes two months after the jury found McDonald’s and the franchise owner liable for the girl’s burns, but not negligent.
The incident occurred in 2019 but the case didn’t go to trial until May of this year.
According to the lawsuit, the child was “disfigured and scarred” after a nugget got wedged between her thigh and the seatbelt. The lawsuit says the nuggets were “unreasonably and dangerously hot” and “unfit for human handling.”
The parents said their daughter suffered “emotional distress” and will continue to need medical care in the future.
Scott Yount, representing McDonald’s, argued that the family purchased 32 McNuggets that day and that the child had actually dropped six nuggets on her lap.
“She has one burn, and that’s the one location where the McNugget was trapped by the seatbelt for two minutes,” he said earlier this year. “The Chicken McNuggets are not defective, they are not unreasonably dangerous, they are not dangerously hot, and there is no negligence.”
In the trial, McDonald’s and the franchise argued they were not at fault.
However, the jury found there were no warnings put on the food, which therefore led to the girl’s injuries.
In May, the franchise owner told Nexstar’s WFLA their “sympathies go out to this family for what occurred in this unfortunate incident, as we hold customer safety as one of our highest priorities.”
“We are deeply disappointed with [the May] verdict because the facts show that our restaurant in Tamarac, Florida did indeed follow those protocols when cooking and serving this Happy Meal. Our community here in South Florida should remain confident that we will continue serving safe and high-quality meals, just as we’ve done for more than 50 years at Upchurch Management restaurants.”
Though the family was asking for $15 million in damages, their attorneys told WTVJ Wednesday’s outcome was “fair and just.”
WJW’s Talia Naquin contributed to this report.
