Jury Reaches Split Verdict After 4-Year-Old Burned by McNugget
The parents of a 4-year-old girl filed a lawsuit against a McDonald’s franchisee after she suffered second-degree burns related to a piping hot McNugget. According to the lawsuit, the McNugget fell on the car seat where it was wedged between the seat and the 4-year-old’s leg. There, it caused second-degree burns to the child’s leg. Her parents then sued both McDonald’s and the owner of the individual franchise for damages.
The jury reached a split verdict in the case. The plaintiff had made two distinct allegations against the companies. First they said that the McDonald’s was the cause of the burn injury. Second, they said that McDonald’s failed to warn patrons that the McNuggets were served hot enough to cause burn injuries. The jury found that McDonald’s was not responsible for the burn injury that the 4-year-old suffered. However, they did find that the company was responsible for failing to warn patrons about how hot their McNuggets were.
With a partial victory for the plaintiff, the case will be sent back to court to determine damages.
Burn injury lawsuits
McDonald’s will go down in history as the world champion of burn injury lawsuits after losing a highly-publicized case involving a spilled cup of coffee. In that lawsuit, McDonald’s was faulted for serving their coffee at 180 degrees which caused third-degree burns to an elderly plaintiff and required skin grafts to repair. While the lawsuit is best remembered as an example of a woman spilling coffee on herself and getting a million-dollar payday, that isn’t actually how the lawsuit played out. In fact, after McDonald’s lost the suit, they began serving their coffee at a lower temperature to avoid future claims against the company.
Today, hot coffee lawsuits are still filed in the United States. Many of the incidents that give rise to burn injury lawsuits involve the exchange of hot coffee through drive-thru windows. In these cases, the cashier spills the coffee onto the customer and the customer sues after they suffer burn injuries. Such lawsuits are much easier to win because the plaintiff can claim that the coffee was spilled because of the negligence of the cashier or their failure to attach the lid properly.
Other types of burn injury lawsuits involve product liability claims made against companies that manufacture products. These include claims related to lithium-ion batteries that overheat and cause injury to a plaintiff. Sometimes, cellphones can overheat causing burn injuries. Other lawsuits have been filed against e-cigarette companies for overheating e-cigarettes. In the case mentioned above, you have a hot McNugget resulting in a burn injury lawsuit.
Talk to a Tampa, Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Today
Florin Gray represents the interests of plaintiffs in burn injury lawsuits. Call our Tampa personal injury lawyers today to schedule a free consultation and we can begin discussing your allegations immediately.
Source:
nbcmiami.com/news/local/jury-reaches-split-verdict-in-mcdonalds-hot-mcnugget-burn-lawsuit/3032551/
