A South Florida jury returned a split verdict Thursday in a lawsuit alleging hot chicken nuggets from an area McDonald’s left a 4-year-old girl severely burned.
The Broward County jury found fault with McDonald’s and the franchise owner for the second-degree burns that the girl suffered while eating Chicken McNuggets at a McDonald’s in Tamarac in 2019.
“This was an unfortunate incident, but we respectfully disagree with the verdict,”
McDonald’s USA said in a statement.
“Our customers should continue to rely on McDonald’s to follow policies and procedures for serving Chicken McNuggets safely.”
The jury heard two days of testimony and arguments about the 2019 episode that left the 4-year-old girl with a burned upper thigh before finding McDonald’s to blame.
Philana Holmes testified that she bought Happy Meals for her son and daughter at a drive-thru window at a McDonald’s in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.
She said she handed the food to her children, who were in the back seat.
After she drove away, her daughter started screaming. The mother testified she didn’t know what was wrong until she pulled over to help the girl, identified in court as Olivia, the newspaper reported.
She saw the burn on the girl’s leg and took photos on her iPhone, which included audio clips of the child’s screams.
The girl’s parents sued, saying that McDonald’s and the franchise owner failed to adequately train employees, failed to warn customers about the “dangerous” temperature of the food, and for cooking the food to a much higher temperature than necessary.
While both sides agreed the nugget caused the burns, the family’s lawyers argued the temperature was above 200 degrees, while the defense said it was no more than 160 degrees.
This isn’t the first time McDonald’s has been sued by customers over burns they say were caused by items on the fast-food restaurant’s menu.
