Jury Awards Maui McDonald's Customer $5.67 Million

A Texas woman visiting relatives on Maui in 2007 slipped and fell at a McDonald's in Kahului. A jury awarded her $5.67 million last week.

The restaurant's owner, Grelyn Rosario of Grelyn of Maui LLC, who owns several other McDonald's restaurants on Maui, expressed sympathy for the injured woman, Beverly Munguia, but disappointment at the verdict as excessive and not in accordance with the facts.

Munguia's attorney, Michael Cruise of Honolulu, said that she can only take a few steps at a time and is largely dependent on a wheelchair. He stated that at the time of the accident, the restaurant crew had not kept the floor clean for an extended period of time and a greasy film had formed at the spot where Manguia slipped and fell. The day of the accident, he added, a "food contaminant" was spilled on top of the greasy film and not removed. Manguia slipped and fell hard on her buttocks, causing a burst compression fracture of a vertebra. She has suffered from severe pain since then and a large bend in her back. She is unable to work.

Sources: The Maui News, Pacific Business News