The jury's verdict was announced today in which Louise Ogburn was awarded $1 million in pain and suffering damages and $111,312 on medicals and $5 million in punitive damages.
I understand that Donna Summers was awarded $100,000 in compensatory damages to be apportioned and $1 million in punitive damages.
One of the legal issues post-verdict is whether or not the compensatories will be apportioned between McD's and the caller since Ogburn prevailed on two of the counts which are not typically apportioned. However, Ann Oldfather seems confident that this will not be apportioned, but also confident McD's will appeal the verdict if past behavior is any predictor of future actions.
For all those who know the lawyers in this case, Ann Oldfather, Pat Patterson, Glenn Cohen - all are first class advocates, and this trial showed the jury system does work and does work well.
More importantly, this trial was and win-win for the judicial system and corporate accountability. The cost to McD's to pay its share of the verdict ($5,550,000) might simply be one less nationwide commercial or two over a new happy meal and to some concerned mothers a little less calories is not a bad thing.
However, a message was sent regarding corporate profits over people. Although corporate culpability in the handling of these hoaxes was a far cry from the calculated disregard behind the Ford Pinto decision, it is a reminder to all that when corporate and shareholder accountability fail to reign in large corporations, one lawyer and twelve jurors can step in where the angelic regulators fail to tread.
Only in America can twelve ordinary people in a small rural community be picked off the street and then hear all of the evidence, follow the court's instructions on the law, and render a fair and reasonable verdict.
This was no runaway jury, no hot coffee case, no Enron, no Ford Pinto.
But one cannot help but wonder in the greater scheme of things what is happening to corporate America when the internal workings of a corporation nullify individual and corporate accountability. In the coffee case, hotter than necessary but albeit tastier coffee devised in the minds of those in white coats in the research laboratory resulted in major burns to a customer.
Now hoaxes across the nation resulting in a surprising response in human behavior failed to reach the corporate consciousness. And when the corporation got caught, the decisions by McD's continued to go awry as the trial judge held the company accountable for failure to honor discovery and pierced the attorney client privilege. Then it was acknowledged that time records were altered which woulda/coulda changed the very outcome of this case by invoking the exclusive remedy provisions of the Workers Compensation Act.
This case, this hoax is not a tipping point in corporate accountability, but this plaintiff, this lawyer, this case, and this jury was and is a tipping point on corporate accountability for the dangers from unknown callers and hoaxes. Hopefully, others will be spared the humiliation, and companies will be more concerned and cautious. In this case, McD's defense of no accountability was shot down by the jury and 11 years of denial of 40+ hoaxes was rejected by this jury. For the post verdict press conference by Louise Ogburn and her attorneys then go to RAW VIDEO: Ogborn discusses verdict at WHAS11.com.
Here is the story. I have the instructions here. For the verdict as read by Judge Tom McDonald go to RAW VIDEO: Verdict found at WHAS11.com.
A jury awarded $6.1 million Friday to a woman who said she was forced to strip in a McDonald's back office after someone called the restaurant posing as a police officer.Louise Ogborn, 21, had sued McDonald's Corp., claiming the fast-food giant failed to warn her and other employees about the caller who already struck other McDonald's stores and other fast-food restaurants across the country.
Ogborn had been seeking $200 million but was awarded $5 million in punitive damages and about $1.1 million in compensatory damages.
"There's nobody in the world worth $200 million," juror Kay Parrish told reporters, adding the amount awarded will enable Ogborn to "live well the rest of her life" and "put all this behind her."
McDonald's attorneys argued the company was not responsible.
Another argument in favor of professional jurors. The damages awarded in this case were completely out of proportion to the injuries suffered. Kay Parish is a halfwit. Can anyone really think that the jury was being reasonable by "only" awarding the victim 6.1 million?
Posted by: Tired of hicks | Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 09:29 PM