BROWARD COUNTY, Florida (WJW) — A Florida couple is suing McDonald’s and franchise management company Upchurch Foods, claiming negligence and poor training after they say their 4-year-old daughter suffered second-degree burns from a “dangerously hot” chicken nugget.
The incident occurred in 2019 when the child was eating a Happy Meal in the back of the car, but the case went to trial this week.
According to the lawsuit, the child was “disfigured and scarred” after a nugget got wedged between the child’s thigh and the seatbelt.
The lawsuit says the nuggets were “unreasonably and dangerously hot” and “unfit for human handling.”
The parents are seeking more than $15,000 in damages.
They say their daughter suffered “emotional distress” and will continue to need medical care in the future.
Scott Yount is representing McDonald’s.
“Ms. Holmes purchased 32 chicken McNuggets that day. The evidence will show [that for] 31 of them, there was no problem,” Yount said Tuesday afternoon in court, WPLG reported.
Yount said the child actually dropped six nuggets on her lap.
“She has one burn, and that’s the one location where the McNugget was trapped by the seatbelt for two minutes,” he said. “The Chicken McNuggets are not defective, they are not unreasonably dangerous, they are not dangerously hot, and there is no negligence.”
