McDonald’s sued by parents over hot McNugget that burned 4-year-old. Verdict reached.

Florida Parents Sue McDonald’s Over Hot Chicken McNuggets

A 4-year-old girl suffered second-degree burns on her leg after a 200-degree McNugget fell in her lap from a Happy Meal box, according to her parents.

Plaintiffs Philana Holmes and Humberto Caraballo Estevez recently appeared in court to state their case against McDonald’s. The family claims that their daughter received severe burns to her thigh area in 2019 after a hot McNugget fell on her lap from a Happy Meal box. The family is seeking $15,000 in damages from McDonald’s and its franchise, Upchurch Foods, for negligence and poor training.

In a split jury, franchisee UpChurch Foods was found negligent while McDonald’s was not, according to court documents. The jury found that both the franchisee and McDonald’s failed to produce instructions for the food that would have prevented the girl’s injury.

The family’s attorneys called the jury decision a “tremendous victory for a deserving family.” The family’s lawyer, Jordan Redavid, argued that “the law implies a promise from a corporation to, in this case, a child. And if it’s preventable, it’s warnable, you should warn someone about it, and if you don’t do that then you’re liable.”

Holmes said she ordered the six-piece chicken McNuggets Happy Meal at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Tamarac, Florida, and handed the box back to her daughter in the backseat. The girl was then allegedly burned by the nugget, which her family said left the child “disfigured and scarred” after it remained on her leg for two minutes.

“As I’m pulling away out of the drive-thru I hear [Olivia] start to yell. But the time I make it to the street it’s a full-blown scream,” Holmes said. “So as soon as I was able I pulled over, I run to the back seat of the car and I got out the nugget that I could see and I then pulled off her seat belt across the lap; there was a chicken nugget that was stuck that I could not reach.”

The family is seeking damages from McDonald’s and its franchise, Upchurch Foods, for negligence and poor training. A jury will determine the amount of damages.

“Our sympathies go out to this family for what occurred in this unfortunate incident, as we hold customer safety as one of our highest priorities. That’s why our restaurant follows strict rules in accordance with food safety best practices when it comes to cooking and serving our menu items, including Chicken McNuggets,” UpChurch Foods said in a statement.

“Our customers should continue to rely on McDonald’s to follow policies and procedures for serving Chicken McNuggets safely,” McDonald’s said in a separate statement.