Lawsuit Started Against McDonald's... Is McD's Liable?

CallMeKate

CallMeKate

Well-known Member
Location
Mid-Atlantic US
In a nutshell, a homeless man attacked a customer at the drive-thru. Man's wife tried to help him and got beaten which lead to her being on life support and then she later died. McD's workers stood and watched it happening and didn't do anything, including calling 9-1-1. Husband is now suing McDonald's.

McDonald's workers watched 'vagrant' kill woman in drive-thru, refused to call 911: Suit
 

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Someone should have helped, though I'm not sure if McDonald's is legally responsible?

When I was DoorDashing in Albuquerque a homeless man approached my car while waiting in a drive-thru line.
I rolled up my window and he begin pulling on my door handle (door locked) and tried to force it open. I rolled my window down a few inches, held my breath, closed my eyes, and maced the crap out of him;)

Problem solved. I had other several other weapons at my disposal which I always carried.

I had been at that restaurant many times and knew the employees who told me the police had been called multiple times for the same issues. Two days after this incident they told me the same individual stabbed someone in the drive-thru line:(
 

The article was copied from the suing parties lawyers so clearly a one sided version of the events, kind of like the summation in the op. The fall that caused the brain injuries was deemed accidental by the LA County DA's office. And the employees are merely min wage kids working for "pocket money" so in some cases you get what you paid for.

Comment copied.

"The problem is that seeing a homeless person begging or throwing a tantrum in the parking lot of your store doesn't seem to reasonably warrant an emergency call, the employees basically failed to predict that he would fatally attack someone, as he did, but they're McDonalds employees, not actuaries or forensic psychiatrists. As an aside, for that matter, there are basically no lawsuits against psychiatrists who had a future murderer or mass-murderer as a patient at some point, and failed to predict their actions."
 
Saw one report where the police were called to that location over 100 times.

It could come down to McDs enforcing a no loitering or soliciting ordinance or policy. If the killer had been chased from property on that or on other occasions the murder probably wouldn't have happened.
 
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On the surface, it doesn’t sound like McDonald’s would be at fault but @WhatInThe makes a good point that it could come down to corporate policy, past actions, an assumed duty to provide a reasonably safe business premises, etc…

In the end, it may not matter if McDonalds was at fault.

Sometimes major corporations pay a modest settlement just to make the noise and publicity go away.
 
Maybe McDonalds will settle out of court just to avoid publicity, but it wouldn't be some million dollar settlement. Maybe the lawyers have got something on McDonalds, and could sue for more. Not enough information here to know for sure.
 
CallMeKate said:
In a nutshell, a homeless man attacked a customer at the drive-thru. Man's wife tried to help him and got beaten which lead to her being on life support and then she later died. McD's workers stood and watched it happening and didn't do anything, including calling 9-1-1. Husband is now suing McDonald's.

McDonald's workers watched 'vagrant' kill woman in drive-thru, refused to call 911: Suit
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Some states have a law requiring people to 'render aid' or call for assistance.
All states should have this law.
 
gruntlabor said:
I believe McDonald's should be responsible for the safety of their guests on their premises
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There was a stink a few years ago where McD's was found not accountable for how the *franchise* owners treated their employees and the wages they paid, etc. Makes me wonder if this would fall under the same because of being franchises? 🤷‍♀️ Maybe the wrong party is being sued.
 
I worked at a McDonald's back home. I'm surprised they didn't call 911 or that another customer didn't call 911. However, speaking from personal experience we were told we were not allowed to partake in physical confrontations. Like if someone came in to the store to rob it to just give them the money. Not to fight. It was restaurant policy although I'm not 100% sure why.

We also never had any training or discussions about active shooters and other things like that.
 
StarSong said:
Like others, I imagine McD's will throw some money at this to take it out of the headlines, but I don't believe they or their employees are responsible for what one member of the public does to another member of the public while in their parking lot.

The incident undoubtedly unfolded so swiftly that calling 911 wouldn't have changed the outcome.
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True but they still should've called. Somebody should've called. Anybody should've called. But as business owners I would think McDonald's would have something in place to instruct them to at least try to call for help instead of just standing there gawking. That's ridiculous.

As citizens and human beings who just stands there and watches someone get attacked or killed without at least trying to call for help?

"Duty to report crimes in progress. California and a few other states require bystanders to call 911 or notify police if they believe a crime is being committed. Certain states impose this duty for any crime, while others only impose penalties for not reporting certain crimes, such as violent crimes, sex crimes, or felonies. States with these laws include Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Wisconsin."
Article here...

It should just automatically be a duty to report those crimes regardless of what state you're in. Anyone who has a conscience or cares about other human beings would just do it I would think.

But I don't think McDonald's should be sued for the actions of a man they had no control over. I just think they should've done the right thing and called it in regardless of the outcome.
 
According to the lawsuit itself, which would slant things in favor of the victims:

"Without warning, Green lunged at [Rangel] and struck him repeatedly in the face through the open driver-side window."

Luna saw Green beating her husband and "immediately exited" the vehicle to help him, according to Rangel and his lawyer. Green allegedly pushed her to the ground and her head struck the asphalt, leading to severe head trauma that triggered a cardiac event and caused permanent brain damage.

"Throughout this physical assault period, defendants' employees never called law enforcement or requested emergency assistance," the complaint says, alleging that police arrived only after Rangel lay injured and his wife lay unconscious on the ground.

p.s. I bolded type to emphasize it.

From the attorney's report, it appears the physical assault was over quickly. Luna got out of the car "immediately," was pushed to the ground and suffered head trauma, and it was over.

I don't see how McDonald's employees or bystanders could have reasonably anticipated this tragedy, nor does it seem at all likely that even if someone had called 911 to complain of a someone harassing people in a McDonald's parking lot, police would have arrived to this (seeming non-emergency) quickly enough to thwart the tragedy.

Harassing people in a parking lot by asking them for money is an annoyance, not a crime.

It sounds like it was over in less than a minute, start to finish, though video evidence might show otherwise.

It speaks volumes that the attorney neither says nor suggests that this was a lengthy altercation.
 
Sunkist said:
Some states have a law requiring people to 'render aid' or call for assistance.
All states should have this law.
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Many times there is no "duty to rescue". This includes when a person is walking on a beach and sees a child drowning. The walker usually has no duty to rescue or to attempt to get help. They can just walk on. It's not their responsibility unless they have a special relationship with the person in danger (parent, nanny, girl scout leader). It sounds odd, doesn't it ... like totally unbelievable.

There are exceptions, of course, and I would argue this case is one. The McDonald's, IMO, has a duty to rescue (by calling 911) because the customers who were attacked were invitees onto business premises. Now, I don't know the law in that state, but generally speaking, that would be my argument. In addition I'd argue that McDonald's should have had security on the premises since it appears that the police were called to that location frequently.

Remember the other side would have their valid arguments as well.

If any of you are interested, you can google "tort law duty to rescue" and you be pretty surprised at what a lot of what you read.
If the law has changed a lot, LMK (not including exceptions) ... I haven't looked at civil law issues in 40 years.
 
--- Even if employees decided to not call police as the attack was happening, I think this is the most important part that I've underlined below... the woman was pushed down, was unconscious, ended up with brain damage, and that "or requested emergency assistance" seems to be the thing that should be highlighted. No call for paramedics or ambulance even though someone was lying unconscious.

"Throughout this physical assault period, defendants' employees never called law enforcement or requested emergency assistance," the complaint says, alleging that police arrived only after Rangel lay injured and his wife lay unconscious on the ground.
 
Nathan said:
I don't know what case law would indicate in that locale, but generally in most locations a business is held liable for the safety of patrons while on the business property. When I was a fitness trainer / Taichi teacher I carried a $3 million liability policy...just makes good sense.
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I never thought of that. McDonalds and other businesses probably carry similar insurance.
 
I don't care how long the assault took. Someone should've called as soon as it started. I find it hard to believe they didn't know something was wrong as they began watching it unfold.

If they were watching then the drive thru window was likely open enough to hear the commotion.
 
WhatInThe said:
Saw one report where the police were called to that location over 100 times.

It could come down to McDs enforcing a no loitering or soliciting ordinance or policy. If the killer had been chased from property on that or on other occasions the murder probably wouldn't have happened.
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I was thinking the same thing WhatinThe. Also, if workers didn't make an attempt to reach 911, the point that they were not trained how to handle emergencies may have bearing on the case...especially if it is so unsafe there that police had to be called 100 times. How terrible for that poor woman and now her widowed husband.
 

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