Ogborn wins the Lottery...

Or maybe it was that Monopoly game they have at McD's. In any case, she got more than a free french fry with the purchase of a Big Mac...

Breaking news from Andrew Wolfson on the C-J website...

A Bullitt County jury has found McDonald's Corp. liable in Louise Ogborn's hoax strip-search suit. Ogborn was awarded compensatory damages of over $1 million and punitive damages of $5 million.

Ogborn, 21, erupted into tears when the verdict was announced and hugged her mother and grandparents.

She told reporters she felt relieved the case was over and plans to use the money to go to law school...

Ogborn had sought $200 million, but Oldfather called the verdict a “resounding vindication” and a “total rejection” of McDonald’s claim it had no responsibility for Ogborn’s ordeal and that of victims of strip search hoaxes at 40 of its other restaurants.

“We think this is a great day for employee safety in Kentucky,” Oldfather said. “When McDonald’s has to choose between its brand image and employee safety, they had better choose employee safety.”

Former assistant manager Donna Summers was awarded $100,000 in compensatory damages. Summers was awarded punitive damages of $1 million.

The jurors divided the blame equally for the incident between McDonald's and the hoax caller who pretended he was a police officer.

Both Ogborn and Summers allege that the company failed to warn employees about hoax calls they knew had plagued dozens of its stores for years.

Ogborn was detained for 3½ hours at the Mount Washington store, where she was strip-searched and sexually assaulted.

Summers, who led the search at the direction of a caller who pretended to be a police officer investigating a theft, was asking for $50 million. She says she was convicted of unlawfully detaining Ogborn because of the company's negligence.


Wow...It's difficult to know who to blame. Even if McDonalds didn't do the best job in notifying employees about this (and how would you do that to avoid liability?), how could anyone go along with a strip search by phone? The jurors divided blame between McD's and the caller-- with no responsibility for either plaintiff? Wow...

It reminds one of the hot coffee incident at McD's from awhile back. At least, Ogborn didn't spill coffee on herself in the middle of the ordeal. Like the coffee lawsuit, this one will almost certainly be appealed-- and the award will probably be reduced. (The initial $2.9 million award in the hot coffee suit was eventually reduced by more than 75%.)

In any case, what a crazy world we live in. And regardless of what happened that night and independent of the merits of the lawsuit, I hope that Ms. Ogborn's fate is better than that of many lottery winners.