"Burn Injury from McNuggets"… American Couple Files $20 Million Lawsuit

American Couple Sues McDonald's for 20 Million Won
"Daughter Burned on Thigh by Hot McNugget"

A parent in Florida, USA, has filed a lawsuit against the major fast-food chain McDonald's seeking approximately 20 million KRW in damages. The reason is that their daughter suffered burns on her thigh from hot McNuggets (chicken nuggets).

According to the New York Post and others on the 10th (local time), the couple Philana Holmes and Umberto Caraballo Estervez recently filed a lawsuit demanding $15,000 (about 19.8 million KRW) in compensation, claiming their 4-year-old daughter was burned due to McDonald's negligence.

[Image source=Pixabay]

According to their claim, Holmes visited a McDonald's drive-thru in Tamarac, Florida, in 2019. They ordered a Happy Meal set containing 6 pieces of McNuggets and handed it to their 4-year-old daughter Olivia Holmes, who was sitting in the back seat.

After the car started moving, the couple heard their daughter screaming from the back. They quickly turned around and discovered that the McNuggets inside the Happy Meal box had spilled onto their daughter's leg. In particular, one piece got caught between their daughter's thigh and the seatbelt and remained stuck there for about 2 minutes until Holmes stopped the car.

The Holmes couple claimed, "The chicken McNuggets inside the Happy Meal were dangerously hot," and "the skin and flesh around our daughter's thigh were burned."

[Image source=Pixabay]

Holmes also said, "As we were leaving the drive-thru, I heard Olivia screaming. I looked back and saw McNuggets had fallen on my daughter's knee," describing the situation at the time. She added, "The part of my daughter's thigh where the McNuggets fell was red."

However, McDonald's denied agreeing with the Holmes couple's claims. McDonald's legal team issued a statement saying, "We have thoroughly reviewed this matter."

They continued, "We ensure high standards of food safety and quality. This means we follow strict policies and procedures for every product we cook and serve. In this case, we followed the policies and procedures properly, so we respectfully disagree with the plaintiff's claims."

Meanwhile, this is not the first incident of a customer being harmed by ordering hot menu items at McDonald's. Previously, in 1994, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck from New Mexico, USA, filed a lawsuit against McDonald's after suffering third-degree burns from hot coffee sold by the fast-food chain. The jury found McDonald's negligent, and McDonald's ultimately paid $2.7 million (about 3.5 billion KRW) in punitive damages.