A court ruled Wednesday that a Nizhny Novgorod resident who claimed that a McDonald's hamburger gave him a bout of food poisoning can collect $50 and enough money to buy another hamburger.
The unidentified plaintiff sued the fast-food chain for 200,000 rubles ($6,825), complaining that he had become ill after downing a Big Tasty burger, Interfax reported, without specifying the extent of the alleged food poisoning.
A Nizhny Novgorod district court ruled in favor of the plaintiff but slashed the amount for damages to 1,500 rubles ($50). The court also ordered McDonald's to cover his legal fees of 4,500 rubles and reimburse him for the burger, which cost 122 rubles.
McDonald's filed an appeal, and the court upheld the verdict Wednesday, allowing it to come into force. It was unclear whether McDonald's planned another appeal.
A similar lawsuit ended last week with much larger damages for a former contestant of the "Dom-2" reality show who claimed she received an esophageal rupture after eating a pizza at an Il Patio restaurant. A court awarded her 2.8 million rubles ($94,000).
A resident of the Moscow region town of Khimki sued McDonald's for $34,000 in 2004 after a swinging door hit her loaded tray as she walked out onto the restaurant's terrace, spilling hot coffee on her stomach. McDonald's denied responsibility, noting that the paper coffee cups carry a warning that the contents are hot. The plaintiff, Olga Kuznetsova, dropped the lawsuit without explanation in 2006.
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