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$6.1M awarded to girl who believed man on phone was a policeman


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SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louise Ogborn displayed no signs of disappointment after her $200 million lawsuit against McDonald's Corp. resulted in a $6.1 million jury award for being forced to strip in a restaurant office after someone called posing as a police officer.

 

Her lawyer saw the verdict as a victory for their argument that the company had been negligent by failing to warn Ogborn and other employees about the caller who had already struck other McDonald's stores and other fast-food restaurants across the country.

 

"Louise has stood up for what happened to her and what McDonald's failed to do for three and a half years, and this jury just vindicated her completely," said her attorney, Ann Oldfather.

 

Ogborn, 21, was awarded $5 million in punitive damages and just over $1.1 million in compensatory damages following a four-week trial and about 13 hours of jury deliberations spread over two days.

 

"There is no way anyone is going to be disappointed with the thoughtfulness of this jury," Oldfather said, calling the ruling a "resounding rejection" of McDonald's claim it shouldered no fault for what happened to Ogborn in April 2004 at its restaurant about 20 miles south of Louisville.

 

Juror Kay Parrish later told reporters that the award would enable Ogborn to "live well the rest of her life" and "put all this behind her."

 

"There's nobody in the world worth $200 million," Parrish said.

 

McDonald's attorneys argued the company was not responsible for the incident.

 

A teary Ogborn hugged relatives after the verdict was read and later expressed relief the case was over. She said she planned to use some of the money to attend law school.

 

McDonald's is evaluating whether to appeal the decision, a spokesman said.

 

"While we are disappointed with the verdict, we remain vigilant in our efforts to protect our employees and provide them with a safe and respectful workplace," said William Whitman, a spokesman for McDonald's USA.

 

In setting the compensatory damages, the Bullitt County Circuit Court jury put half the blame for the incident on McDonald's and the other half on the unnamed caller. Oldfather told reporters that she would argue that McDonald's should be held liable for the entire $6.1 million.

 

The jury also awarded $1.1 million to Donna Summers, a former McDonald's assistant store manager who also sued the fast-food chain. Summers, who had asked the jury to award her $50 million, led the strip search of Ogborn at the direction of the hoax caller.

 

Summers was placed on probation for a misdemeanor conviction in relation to the incident. Her former fiance, Walter Nix Jr., is serving five years in prison for sexually abusing Ogborn during the hoax call.

 

A Florida man, David Stewart, was acquitted last year on charges of making the hoax phone call. Police have said the calls stopped after Stewart's arrest.

 

On Friday, Summers expressed vindication with the verdict. "For the first time in three and a half years I can hold my head up," she said.

 

Ogborn, who was 18 at the time of the search, accused the company of negligence leading up to the events in which she was detained for 3 1/2 hours.

 

In the lawsuit, she said someone called the restaurant in Mount Washington impersonating a police officer and gave a description of a young, female employee, accusing her of stealing from a customer. The caller instructed an employee to strip search the woman, according to testimony.

 

Ogborn was forced to undress, endure a strip search, and to perform sexual acts, the lawsuit said. The events were captured on surveillance video, which was shown to jurors during the trial.

 

Summers and Kim Dockery, a McDonald's assistant manager, also were named as defendants in Ogborn's suit, but the jury ruled they did not have to pay any damages. Oldfather said that Summers and Dockery were duped by the hoax caller, as other fast-food restaurant managers across the country had been.

 

"Everybody is still suffering because of this, and now maybe McDonald's will suffer a little bit in the pocketbook," Oldfather said.

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Just what the fuck is the world coming to???????????? Being stupid enough for the two women to go through with the strip search as directed by some duffer on the phone is one thing, but then for the young lass to perform 'sex acts' as well is just crackers.

 

I almost went to MacDonald's today, as well. I'll go tomorrow and ask for a big mac and a blow-job as my uncle is a policeman!!

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Fair do's tbh. The money's ridiculous (and sort of irrelevant anyway) but if McDonald's had known about the calls and it was clear that their stores were being targeted then it's clear that they had a duty to their franchisees to let them know about it. It's not like it would have been hard for them to disseminate a warning, putting staff on notice of the situation.

 

And Snakehips...you have to remember that McDonald's employs mongs, so yes their would be a chance they'd go through with something like that. If they're paying mong wages for mong staff then arguably they owe them a higher duty of care.

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Fair do's tbh. The money's ridiculous (and sort of irrelevant anyway) but if McDonald's had known about the calls and it was clear that their stores were being targeted then it's clear that they had a duty to their franchisees to let them know about it. It's not like it would have been hard for them to disseminate a warning, putting staff on notice of the situation.

 

And Snakehips...you have to remember that McDonald's employs mongs, so yes their would be a chance they'd go through with something like that. If they're paying mong wages for mong staff then arguably they owe them a higher duty of care.

 

I agree about your first point - MacD's should have sent out a store-wide warning.

 

To the second point - I know they employ mongs which is why I'll be there tomorrow placing my order !!!! :razz: I wonder if I go via the drive-thru (sic) I'll get me blow-job in the car as well ????

 

The last time I went to MacD's at Silverlink in N.Shields, the whole workforce was of Indian/Pakistani appearance. Nothing wrong in that, but I wonder if they were all from S.Shields nautical college earning a few bob - which I know for a fact happens yet is very, very wrong.

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Fair do's tbh. The money's ridiculous (and sort of irrelevant anyway) but if McDonald's had known about the calls and it was clear that their stores were being targeted then it's clear that they had a duty to their franchisees to let them know about it. It's not like it would have been hard for them to disseminate a warning, putting staff on notice of the situation.

 

And Snakehips...you have to remember that McDonald's employs mongs, so yes their would be a chance they'd go through with something like that. If they're paying mong wages for mong staff then arguably they owe them a higher duty of care.

 

I was in Mcdonalds at Byker on Friday and can vouch that at least 99% of the staff there are in fact mongs, suppose you'd have to be to work there tbh. And 'no' I wouldn't let any of them blow me off

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Fair do's tbh. The money's ridiculous (and sort of irrelevant anyway) but if McDonald's had known about the calls and it was clear that their stores were being targeted then it's clear that they had a duty to their franchisees to let them know about it. It's not like it would have been hard for them to disseminate a warning, putting staff on notice of the situation.

 

And Snakehips...you have to remember that McDonald's employs mongs, so yes their would be a chance they'd go through with something like that. If they're paying mong wages for mong staff then arguably they owe them a higher duty of care.

 

I was in Mcdonalds at Byker on Friday and can vouch that at least 99% of the staff there are in fact mongs, suppose you'd have to be to work there tbh. And 'no' I wouldn't let any of them blow me off

:razz:

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It was Friday about 3:30 ish when i was in. The queue was out the door and guess how many staff were on the tills? Fucking one! I had only ventured on to S.Road because the cash machine on Heaton Rd was out of order, then i made the fatal mistake of saying to the bairn I'd take her for a Happy Meal thinking i would save time and be able to get out on the drink quicker, oh how wrong i was. It took me until 4 just to get served.

 

It's got to be the worst McD's going and tbh it was better when the staff was entirely made up of Vietnamese boat people at least they were on the hurry up, the lass who served me on Friday had the get up and go of a Sloth and about the same amount of facial hair

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Rumour has it that SMO does most of his trawling at Byker MaccyD's :razz:

 

His Lass used to work there flipping burgers apparently until she got caught by one of the area managers in the toilets sucking mayonnaise out of the managers own personal dispenser...I kid you not :D

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Rumour has it that SMO does most of his trawling at Byker MaccyD's :razz:

 

His Lass used to work there flipping burgers apparently until she got caught by one of the area managers in the toilets sucking mayonnaise out of the managers own personal dispenser...I kid you not :D

 

A jobs a job son, not that you'd know much about that! :D:D

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Fair do's tbh. The money's ridiculous (and sort of irrelevant anyway) but if McDonald's had known about the calls and it was clear that their stores were being targeted then it's clear that they had a duty to their franchisees to let them know about it. It's not like it would have been hard for them to disseminate a warning, putting staff on notice of the situation.

 

And Snakehips...you have to remember that McDonald's employs mongs, so yes their would be a chance they'd go through with something like that. If they're paying mong wages for mong staff then arguably they owe them a higher duty of care.

 

I can just see the McD's monthly warning sheet.

 

Warning: Monopoly money is NOT legal tender.

 

Warning: The tooth fairy is NOT real (and anyone pretending to be the tooth fairy cannot make you give them your teeth).

 

Warning: Someone posing as a police officer may call you and "make" you perform "sex acts" on other people.

 

Warning: Wearing none velcro fastening shoes may result in DEATH.

 

Warning: Someone posing as George Bush may walk into your branch and make you sign up to fight in Iraq.

 

Warning: DO NOT eat the food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lawyers should all be ritually executed tbh.

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Warning: Hot Coffee

 

Actually in the case of their apple pies (dunno if they're still like that not had one in what maybe decades) a warning like that probably is justified. ;)

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Warning: Hot Coffee

 

Actually in the case of their apple pies (dunno if they're still like that not had one in what maybe decades) a warning like that probably is justified. ;)

 

I'm pretty sure theres a warning on both tbh.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Warning: Hot Coffee

 

If that's referring to the infamous coffee burn case, I feel I should point out the real facts of that case....

 

The woman was given coffee which was heated to over 190 degrees F (that's 88 degrees C) which is MUCH higher than the suggested safe temperature for serving a beverage (but was McDonald's standard temperature in their manual)

 

When she was given the coffee and it spilled, she suffered 3rd degree burns on her thighs and genitals, resulting in the need for several skin grafts from her back which cost upwards of $20,000.

 

This was not the first instance of this injury; McDonalds had had warning of the danger of serving superheated coffee yet continued to direct its employees to do so.

 

The woman sued for ONLY the medical expenses, and the other damages were PUNITIVE.

 

The point of punitive damages is to provide a deterrent for repeated offenses. The amount required will differ with defendants.

 

If Gemmill beats me up, a punitive award would be less than if Kieron Dyer beat me up. It's not because Gemmill is less of a twat, it's because a fine of $5,000 is significant to Gemmill, but pocket change to Dyer.

 

 

I'm not commenting on the the case in the first post, however, as I don't know the circumstances of it as yet.

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