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How Do You Say "Lawsuit" in Russian?
It looks like the fashion to sue fast food
enterprises has finally gone global now that a thirty-seven-year-old
Muscovite (Russia) woman is seeking 100,000 rubles ($3,500.00) in
compensation from McDonald's for the burn she suffered from a spilled cup
of McDonald's coffee.. The lawsuit has been filed at one of Moscow
district counts.
According to the story as told by the claimant, she was coming out of
McDonald's restaurant on May 5th when "I pushed the heavy door with my
hand, while carrying the tray with the other. The door slammed and spilled
the cup of coffee on me. I asked the personnel of the restaurant, if they
could help me out, but they just said that they had run out of ointment
and brought a towel and some ice."
The woman went to a hospital and then to
Russia's Sklifosofsky's Institute, where she was diagnosed with first and
second degree burns.
The woman's lawyer believes that the restaurant violated the customer's
right for safe services and broke the requirement of the Russian Surgeon
General, which obliged public catering establishments to have first-aid
kits.
The administration of McDonald's division in Russia believes that the
claim from the Russian client is not worth considering. "There is a
warning written in Russian on every McDonald's coffee cup: "Caution,
hot!" The written warning guarantees that the goods are safe for
customers," the company's press secretary stated. Good grief, haven't they
learned anything at all from America's lawyers?
The coffee lawsuit filed by the Muscovite is the first one in Russia's law
practice, but probably not the last. Russian legal experts differ in their
opinions as far as its perspective is concerned. Lawyer Kirill Smirnov
thinks that the claimant has very few chances to win the trial, as
McDonald's lawyers have had such incidents in the past. Another lawyer,
Gamlet Atanesyan, is certain that the woman's lawsuit may be upheld:
"Services must be safe. Customers are not supposed to think that something
can fall down on them from the ceiling, that a chair can break, or a door
can slam them, as it happened in this case," the expert said.
Oh well, I guess they can discuss the case over a
Big Mac and a bag of fries.
Source: Pravada.ru, "Russian citizen sues McDonald's over spilled
coffee," 11/15/2004.
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