Girl’s brain damage to cost KFC €6.3m
Monika Samaan, then aged 7, became seriously ill after eating the chicken wrap at the Villawood KFC in 2005, suffering brain damage that has left her confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak.
KFC denied it was responsible, challenging the family’s claim during a four-week trial at the NSW supreme court.
Justice Stephen Rothman found in favour of the family and yesterday ordered the fast-food giant to pay the family A$8m in compensation plus costs.
Lawyer for the Samaan family George Vlahakis said Monika’s severe brain damage and severe disability had already “exhausted the very limited resources of the family”.
“Monika is now a big girl and they are finding it increasingly difficult to lift her and to look after her basic needs as well as look after Monika’s younger siblings,” said Mr Vlahakis.
“The compensation ordered is very much needed. KFC have to date been determined that Monika does not receive a cent.”
KFC has indicated that it intends to appeal against the decision of Justice Rothman as it has “a responsibility to defend KFC’s reputation as a provider of safe, high quality food”.
Mr Vlahakis said last week that KFC should accept the court’s decision.
“KFC chose to put Monika and her family through a court hearing over several weeks, which they adjourned twice, so that the process so far has taken seven years since she sustained her injuries,” he said.
“KFC of course got a completely fair hearing and were represented by a large team of lawyers from a multi -national firm and their own in- house legal team.
“Monika is represented by a sole practitioner law firm and the family has virtually no resources other than their love for one another, their courage and their belief in themselves and their case.”
During a four-week trial in 2010, Monika’s father Amanwial Samaan told the court he and his wife Hanna, son Abanou and Monika all fell ill with vomiting and diarrhoea after sharing the Twister. Unlike Monika, who was in a coma for six months and in hospital for seven, they recovered.
Monika took the court action through her father.
KFC’s lawyer, Ian Barker QC, argued during the trial that there “never was a shared Twister” because there was no sales data to prove the family purchased it.
“You did not tell anyone at the hospital, when you were there between October 27 and 29, that you had shared a KFC Twister that Monday,” Mr Barker said in court in July 2010.
“Because there was no direct question at me,” Mr Samaan replied.
The family’s barrister, Anthony Bartley SC, presented evidence about KFC food practices that were “disturbing and unsettling”.
“If the store was particularly busy, then even if chicken dropped on the floor...it was on some occasions simply put back into the burger station from where it had fallen,” he said.
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