After a four-week-long trial and two days of deliberations, a Kentucky jury has delivered a $6.1 million verdict to a former McDonald's Corp. employee involved in a strip-search hoax lawsuit.
Twenty-one-year-old Louise Ogborn, who was 18 at the time of the April 2004 incident, was awarded more than $1 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. She had been seeking more than $200 million.
Former assistant manager Donna Summers, who conducted the search at the direction of a caller impersonating a police officer, was awarded $100,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.
Jurors attributed equal amounts of blame to both McDonald's and the hoax's initiator, according to The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal.
Both Ogborn and Summers accused McDonald's of failing to warn employees about the hoax calls that had already struck at least 32 of its other stores, as well as other fast-food restaurant chains nationwide.
As a result, Ogborn claimed, she was detained in a back office for 3 ½ hours, strip-searched and sexually assaulted.
During its defense, a McDonald's attorney claimed a companywide voicemail had been sent to managers about the calls and that policies, such as a zero-tolerance sexual-harassment policy were in place. According to the Associated Press, the attorney said employees at the Mount Washington, Ky., store were set to be briefed a few days after the call.
A Florida man was charged with making the phone call, but was acquitted last year.
Carolyn Richmond, partner and co-chairwoman of the Hospitality Practice Group of Fox Rothschild LLP, said training and communication is critical to preventing such a situation.
"Unfortunately, we've learned that you can't prevent every instance of violence that takes place," she said. "You can do a lot to try and alleviate it by doing as much training as you can and putting in as many preventative measures as you can."
Such measures should include spreading messages through e-mails and voicemails and ensuring managers are informed of workplace rights.
"The lesson learned is to be more vigilant and to make managers and employees more aware of the surroundings, to make sure you have well-trained managers in the workplace at all times and being aware that there are often young employees in the workplace," she said.
Although Richmond said the fast-food industry has taken steps to improve employee welfare and safety, it must be a continuing process.
"Whether it's your loss prevention program or a training component of the human resources department, nowadays violence prevention has to be an integral part of the new hire process as well as continued training," she said.
