Drop a McNugget on your lap...get $800K
 

Totally ridiculous....

https://news.yahoo.com/finance/news/jury-awards-florida-girl-burned-124435615.html

It certainly is, a friend of mine is a claims manager for a large insurer, they handle McDonald's Corp., the fraud that is permitted to occur is disturbing. But claims like this are noting compared to others. One claim I was told about is a real estate "investor" in California. It seems all his properties that need to be remodeled mysteriously catch fire. On one particular claim the "investor" turned in a fire damage claim, the investigation found a surveillance camera caught him setting the property on fire. The claim was denied, he hired an attorney, the carrier offered to settle for $200,000.00 he sued and won $500,000.00

^^^ That is crazy !!! The guy should be in jail for arson .

Is it possible that the girl got a hot nugget that if forcefully pressed to the skin of a 4 yo could cause second degree burns (a blister), sure assuming McDs still deep fries their nuggets, that wouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities.

But what parent doesn't check the temp of food before handing it to their toddler? IME, kids will just jam anything in their mouth, and can and will burn themselves. So as an adult, you check those things.

And what mother as your toddler is screaming is taking pictures and videos/audio rather than trying to comfort the kid?

I don't think I've ever had a scar from a second degree burn, or if so, then definitely not one that lasted 4 years. But maybe the skin on a 4yo is different.

I think this was a BS scam.

My son is an attorney in Virginia. He does criminal defense and his firm represents three large, nation-wide insurance companies in a portion of the State.

Turns out the large companies prefer to retain local council on many matters.

His insurance fraud stories are amazing, especially if it goes to court.

One of my good friends worked for a large tech company in the HR department, handling the workers comp claims. He had one guy show up in court with two crutches, really struggling to walk at all, and claiming horrible back pain and claiming total disability. The trial started the attorney showed a several minute long clip of the guy water skiing and even going over jumps just the week before.

They did deny the claim, but refused to prosecute him for fraud. He had endless stories like that. They said a few private detectives were way cheaper than paying the crazy fraud claims.

McNuggets are deep fried.

Deep fryers run between 250-350 degrees.

If an employee scooped a fresh batch of nuggets and just tossed them into the box without letting it drain and cool that could certainly result in a 3rd degree burn almost instantly.

It only takes 5 seconds of contact at 140 degrees to get a 3rd degree burn.

If it was wet with oil the oil would have stayed on the skin even if the nugget immediately bounced off.

"If" thats what happened then yes McD's was negligent and liable.

$800k may be a bit excessive and I would not be surprised if it gets reduced.

But when it comes to suits involving females and children the payouts get big, especially since it's a female child.

My wife, at the time fiance, was out talking a walk in her neighborhood, two GSD's escaped a neighbors yard, ran up behind her (she had headphones on, didn't hear them coming) and one of them bit her on the upper thigh. She still has a scar from it 30+ years later and while an avid dog lover won't get within 10 ft of a GSD so there's a little PTSD there as well.

We got a lawyer which I think was right. First meeting with Ins companies counsel he told her "wear a skirt". She sat outside the conference room, at some point he asked her to come in, turn around slowly, then she could leave.

Something about a 25 yr old attractive young woman with a visible scar makes Insurance companies settle real fast and generously to boot.

She took the offer as it was fair.

I don't disagree but it doesn't absolve McD of liability if they served a product outside their standards for food temp.

But, yes, you check these things because others may be negligent and not even maliciously so but the location could have been swamped and someone had a brain fart.

I can envision circumstances that might make even normally diligent parents lose focus.

Drive thru lines can induce a bit of anxiety in people. There is an expectation that you will conduct the transaction with some urgency, like, you paid, got your order, time for you to GTFO of the way as there is a line of cars behind you. Toss in a possibly hungry cranky coupla kids and I can see this happening a parent missing the check.

MANY years ago, I worked at a Popeye's chicken joint. I think our deep fryers topped out at 375º (I think that was for the fries) and then the chicken cooking deep fryers were lower, 325º or 275º, maybe.

Agreed

5 seconds of 140º will give you 1st degree burns, or maybe 2nd degree, but I don't think it'll give you 3rd degree burns at that temp.

I think the family was asking for $15 million, but only got 800k.

Agreed. It's entirely plausible. I guess I'm just cynical, as I think it's unlikely and far more likely that it's a money grab by the parents. I'm open to the possibility, and I didn't see any of the evidence or get the full story.

Degree of burn is a factor of temp and time of contact / exposure.

You can get a 3rd from something thats 115 degrees. It'll take hours of contact but it's possible.

The degree of a burn is how deep into the tissue it goes.

3rd is full thickness, all 3 layers, Epidermis, Dermis, Subcu fat.

140 at 1 second won't give you a 3rd but at 5 seconds of contact it will.

from the linked story....


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A South Florida jury awarded $800,000 in damages to a little girl who received second-degree burns when a hot Chicken McNugget fell on her leg as her mother pulled away from the drive-thru of a McDonald's restaurant.

So her mom drops a hunk of chicken on her daughter's lap, and sues for millions but only gets 800K. I wonder how much the lawyers took out of that? Did McDonald's not put it all in a bag? If the mom took the nuggets out of the bag and dropped it on the daughter, why is she not the culprit?

Only in America!

Probably more likely the mother handed the daughter the nugget, and the daughter dropped it or the mother handed the kids the box of nuggets and the daughter dropped it. My guess is that the mom didn't put the nugget into the kid's lap. A 4yo is perfectly capable and likely to want to grab a nugget, but it also wouldn't be surprising for a 4yo to drop what they were holding. My experience is fairly recent since we spend a lot of time with our grandsons that are 7 and 4.

When I was 16, I worked at a Popeye's Fried Chicken. When I washed dishes, I used the hottest water that I could stand. I'd fill a sink with water full hot. It was usually about 135º. On the occasion that I got it up to 140º, that would be a little too hot, but I never had more than red skin that would be fine in an hour or two. And I spent a lot of time up to my elbows in that water.

I'm sure that would be far worse for a 4yo, but I wouldn't expect more that 2nd degree burns, max.

https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/5098-Tap-Water-Scalds.pdf

Weird. That has not been my experience.

I grew up in a fry shop.. I'm calling BS on the story.
I've had my hand IN the fat fryer while it was on..
I've regularly picked up stuff from the basket with my bare hands.

The time that nugget went from the fryer, in the kitchen, in the drain box, in the carboard box, to the window, in the bag... handed over TO the driver
then handed over to the toddler.

Sorry.. you don't get 3rd degree burns, those high temps are long gone.

^^^ per the article....the lawsuit was for a second degree burn.

I was replying to :

I cooked at a French restaurant in high school but my older brother was a sous chef at the local Hilton. I had to pick him up one day. Went back into the kitchen and everyone was over in the corner hootin and hollerin. This huge guy and I mean cartoonishly huge, came out of the crowd and held up his hand which he had breaded and, yes, fried it. Light golden brown. Of course he had to take bite off his hand.

At Popeyes, we seasoned and battered all of the chicken by hand (battered immediately before cooking). On a busy day, you'd end up looking like you were wearing a heavy winter glove because your hands would be covered in batter. I've plunged my fingers into 375º deep fryer, but only for maybe a second. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. We COOK meat in those things.

Everybody remembers the old lady who spilled hot coffee on her lap. That can happen. I've spilled a splash of boiling water on my shoe not thinking about it, took it off a few seconds later after pain set in, and got a golf ball sized water blister on the top of my foot.

But I think her (later reduced) judgement was about having medical bills reimbursed and changing corporate practices in the interest of public safety. Company policy at the time was to serve coffee at scalding temperatures and as common practice McDonald's denied all injuries requests and fought every single claim without modifying their practices. In the legal sense they have to do that to avoid any type of legal precedence, same as companies having to sue all infringers of trademarks to maintain their rights to challenge infringers.

She won. They reduced serving temperatures. The ironic thing was that McDs coffee became so much better and boosted sales again.

This judgement does not appear to be a systemic mistake, rather a minor(to pun a phrase) accidental employee one if that, and did not result in excessive great bodily harm.
Food is hot. It says so right on the front of the damn box.
Mom knowingly handed it to the child and it's ultimately her fault. Social Services should remove the child from such an unfit home if Mom wanted to push the issue. It's like suing the water heater for a tub being too hot. I'm not sure how they could have justified such a class-action level judgement.

Again, severity of burns is a function of temp AND time.

I cook with my bare hands all the time.

I reach into pots of boiling water and fry pans all the time.

Heat transfer is not consistent under all conditions.

If you are cooking breaded cutlets in a fry pan your hands / fingers are generally coated in flour or are moist. That provides a brief level of insulation which lets you get away with touching hot things.

Your fingertips, palms of your hands (and soles of your feet) are different than skin on your forearm or thigh. They are naturally more calloused from use, provide some additional protection.

Sticking your fingers into a vat of heated fry oil is not the same as taking that same liquid from the vat and dropping on your forearm.

Why? Leidenfrost.

Time is a weird thing. 30 seconds is actually a good amount of time. A busy kitchen doesn’t need more than 20 seconds to pull a basket from a fry vat, pull product from it into a box, put the box in a bag and hand it off to a customer. You are not shedding 100 degrees of heat in 20 seconds.

Look, my point is not to be argumentative here.

Did this happen to this little girl?

I have not a ****ing clue.

Is it possible?

Yes, because the science says so.

If you’ve not experienced burns it just means there was a variable that changed the calculus. But that doesn’t mean the variable exists under every circumstance.

Local guy knows the local attorneys, local judges and how things are done in a particular court

Here's what literally 2 seconds of hydrofluoric acid does in terms of burning. Doctor said 2nd degree. Pics are a week after the incident. 4 weeks later it's still bright red at the wrist and between fingers.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1689966843.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1689966843.jpg

ow (green because it's a major understatement).

And with acid, the molarity can make a huge difference, but I don't screw around with it.

This is small potatoes. If you failed the teacher's exam in NYC and are a minority, it is worth $2M.

I still think that some of the numbers quoted in the link that you provided are probably under very specific circumstances, again, based on my experience. But, it wouldn't surprise me if the skin of a 4yo is more delicate than an older person.

The way that we filled the deep fryers at work was by putting these 1' cubes of solid fat into them. I think we usually cut the cubes up and added them in pieces. We had this one guy that worked there, super nice guy, but not the brightest. Was probably going to be a worker bee at a fast food place or grocery store his whole life with no possibility of moving up. Anyway, I think the vats took 2 or 3 of the cubes of fat. The guy had filled one so that the fat was over the top of the heating tubes by several inches and hot. He had another cube right on the edge and was taking it out of the box when it slipped and fell into the vat. The grease, a bunch of it, splashed out onto his arms and down one leg (wearing long pants, of course). It burned him pretty badly, but he was still working. I wandered up and saw him and asked him what had happened and he told me and showed me. I told him he needed to tell management and get checked out, but he wasn't going to. Then I told management and they insisted that he go to the hospital.

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I don't think it's so much specific circumstances rather it's consistent circumstances.

Absence of variables because we can't always control if they are present or not.

Seriously though....has anyone here ever purchased Chicken McNuggets and thought they were too hot to eat?
Maybe hot to the tongue and mouth (never in my case)...but to burn the skin on your leg?

How did the mother find the time to record the whole thing with her 4 year old burning from the McNugget??

Scamming the system is as old as the days of modern civilization. My personal experience 2x with bogus claims against my insurance are what I base that statement on. One, I merged into a lane and did not see the car in my blind spot. Totally my fault. I ended up with a quarter sized dent and some paint from the other car that I polished out at home. The victim driving the other car, an old Camry that already looked terrible, was awarded a substantial claim for a complete body shop and detail. I am on great terms with my insurance agent and he said the company did not to go after $12k+ in damages claimed and just settled. And we wonder why insurance is so darn expensive. This is not racist but when you look at the defendant in the McD case I and the record it is pretty obvious they were seeking a cash out from the insurance company. Had the same thing happen to me from a non minority scammer.

HF...

I always suit up in tychem when i play with HF. That and have a couple tubes of calcium gluconate on hand.

Ridiculous but it also begs the question...

What would happen if a homeless person dropped a "Nugget" in your lap in the same restaurant? :(

Exactly. Highly, HIGHLY unlikely without being intentional. Most likely a scam.

When I was 16, I got into a parking lot fender non-bender. Honestly, I tapped a beat to crap old Ford van that didn't have a straight, non-rusted spot on it. I didn't realize (not even sure that I did hit them). There was no dent that I could have made (fresh). I exchanged info with the guys, and they said "no harm, no foul". At a much later date, we were contacted by my parent's insurance that there was a claim. The claim didn't go to court until 4 years later. I had to fly from FL to VA from college. The claimants weren't minorities. The court found in their favor, but awarded them $0.

When I worked at a FLAPS in college, a guy used to come in pretty regularly to chat. Apparently, it was well known that he made his money through insurance fraud (also not a minority), although he never tried it in our store that I'm aware of. He did get on this kick where he'd come in with a huge box of produce, and give us some. We'd say "no, but thanks," but he'd insist, so we'd take it. Eventually, he started complaining "I give you all of this produce but you never give me any money." That's when I explained, "I don't want the produce, but you insist. I'm not going to pay you for stuff that I don't really want."

I wonder if the 4 year old asked for bbq sauce with the Nuggets?

That might explain why she was burned so badly...some states are ruthless with their hot/bbq sauce.

I'm stopping at Taco Bell tomorrow morning for a Chipotle Ranch Grilled Chicken Burrito.
Asking for it extra hot..might get lucky and get $900K.

As a person who observes human behaviour.......I see mothers all the time not paying attention to the safety of not only their small children but their pets.

The biggest culprit is many of them seem unable to function unless they are on their cell phone.

Not just while driving but while walking their dog - children in tow - or even out shopping.

Now I wasn't there and haven't seen the video if there is one. But based on what I observe day in and day out - a "distracted" mom concerned more with her phone than watching out for her chillin' wouldn't surprise me one bit.....

I was just speaking with my friend who handles McD's corporate claims, she stated they started mediation today on another burn case, opening demand was $5,000,000.00.