Jury Awards $800K To FL Girl Burned By McDonald's Chicken Nugget

BROWARD COUNTY, FL — A jury awarded $800,000 in damages to a Florida girl Wednesday, four years after a hot McDonald's chicken nugget fell in her lap, causing severe burns to her thigh, according to court documents and a report. The award marks a significant decrease from the $15 million requested by the girl's lawyers.

The decision came two months after the jury found the fast-food giant and franchise operator Upchurch Foods liable for the burn. The jury awarded 8-year-old Olivia Caraballo $400,000 in damages for the past four years, and $400,000 for the future, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Lawyers for the little girl and her parents, Philana Holmes and Humberto Estevez, had requested $5 million to cover the last four years and $10 million for the future, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

The damages stem from a lawsuit filed by Holmes following the 2019 incident. According to court documents, Holmes took her son and then-4-year-old Olivia to a Tamarac McDonald's on Aug. 21, 2019. Holmes went through the restaurant's drive-thru and ordered her daughter a Happy Meal with chicken nuggets.

During the trial, Holmes said she handed the food to her daughter in the back seat and drove away, the Sun-Sentinel previously reported. Moments later, a piece of chicken fell on the little girl's leg, causing her to scream.

According to court documents, the chicken nuggets — described as "unreasonably and dangerously" hot — burned the little girl's leg, leaving her "disfigured and scarred."

The lawsuit claimed McDonald's was negligent and should have known the nuggets were hot. The lawsuit also stated McDonald's had a duty not to give them to Holmes and her daughter if they were harmful or unfit for consumption.