US family sues McDonald’s after girl, 4, scalded by hot chicken nugget
- Philana Holmes says the food was ‘dangerously hot’ and gave her daughter second-degree burns on her thighs
- The chicken was left on the girl’s legs for nearly two minutes, and the plaintiff’s lawyers say their temperature was over 93 degrees Celsius
The family of a four-year-old girl allegedly scalded by a steaming hot Chicken McNugget is taking McDonald’s to court in Broward County, Florida, faulting the fast-food giant for poor training and failing to protect its customers.
Philana Holmes says in her lawsuit that she took her daughter to the McDonald’s restaurant in the city of Tamarac in 2019 and ordered a six-piece Happy Meal with milk and a Lion King toy.
“The Chicken McNuggets inside of that Happy Meal were unreasonably and dangerously hot and caused [the victim’s] skin and flesh around her thighs to burn,” the lawsuit states.
The burns were second-degree, according to the lawsuit, and the chicken was on her thigh for nearly two minutes. The girl, whose name is not disclosed in the lawsuit, is autistic and will not be testifying.
Lawsuits in state court do not require plaintiffs to be specific about how much money they are seeking, but it is above US$15,000.
Broward Circuit Judge David Haimes split the trial into two parts – the first will determine whether McDonald’s is responsible for the burn. If McDonald’s loses, a second trial will determine damages.
Lawyers for McDonald’s said in court Monday that they plan to argue the burn was caused at least in part by the length of time the nugget spent in contact with the victim’s skin. The plaintiff’s lawyers say the nuggets were at a temperature of more than 93 degrees Celsius (200 Fahrenheit).
Jury selection in the first part of the case took place on Monday, and opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday. Potential jurors described a variety of experiences with the fast-food giant, from frustration with broken ice cream machines to complaints about food that was too hot or too cold.
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McDonald’s was famously ordered to pay US$3 million to a New Mexico woman in 1994 after a spilled cup of coffee left her with third-degree burns on her thighs.
That case became a rallying point for tort reform, with lawmakers complaining about runaway juries. Legal scholars also have defended the jury’s decision by pointing out the excessively high temperature of the coffee and the harm to the plaintiff.
A judge later reduced the punitive damages to less than US$500,000.
