A jury in the US state of Florida has awarded $800,8 in damages to McDonald's restaurant chain in favor of an <>-year-old girl.
The jury based its verdict on Thursday that the restaurateur was responsible for negligence and failure to warn customers of the dangers of hot food, and McDonald's restaurants in the United States were responsible for not providing instructions for safe handling of food.
Olivia Caraballo was burned in 2019 when she was 4 years old while her mother ordered a meal from McDonald's drive-thru service.
In her testimony in court, mother Vilana Holmes said she bought Happy Meal meals for her son and daughter from a car window at a McDonald's restaurant in Tamarac near Fort Lauderdale. She said she delivered food to her children, who were in the back seat.
After she drove away, her daughter started screaming. The mother said she didn't know what was wrong until she stopped to help the girl, saw the burn in her leg and took photos with her phone, footage of the child's screams and presented them as evidence in court.
Before the verdict, the family's lawyers argued that the temperature was above 200 degrees (93 degrees Celsius), while the defense said it was no more than 160 degrees (71 degrees Celsius).
The regulator ordered the restaurant to compensate the minor's family with $800,15, half of which was for the damage caused then and the rest for the future, while Olivia's family lawyers were seeking $<> million in damages.
McDonald's defense attorney responded that the child's wound healed after about 3 weeks and was not permanently harmed, so she should be compensated with no more than $156,<> for previous damages.
The defense argued that the restaurant observes food safety rules, which require poultry meat to be served hot enough to avoid samonella poisoning, but the authority upheld the girl's right to compensation.
This isn't the first time customers have sued McDonald's for burns, which they say were caused by items on the fast-food restaurant's menu.
In a case known since the early nineties, Stella Libeck, 79, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, sued McDonald's for hot coffee spilled on her lap in the car and sustained serious injuries that required hospitalization and skin grafts.
After the trial, the jury found Libeck to be only 20 percent wrong, receiving $160,2 in damages and $7.2 million in punitive damages and the judge later reduced $7.480 million to $<>,<>.