Torts/Personal Injury
Dec. 6, 2022
Savin Bursk wins $18.79M slip and fall verdict against McDonald’s
“Our understanding of the verdict is that it might be the largest slip and fall case against McDonald’s, especially one where it’s a spine injury,” said the plaintiff’s attorney, Brian J. Kim of Savin Bursk Law in Encino.




An Encino law firm won an $18.79 million verdict against a Los Angeles County McDonald’s after their client sustained spinal injuries in a fall at the fast food restaurant. According to the victorious plaintiff’s attorneys, the verdict comes despite attempts by the defendants to cover up the incident.
“Our understanding of the verdict is that it might be the largest slip and fall case against McDonald’s, especially one where it’s a spine injury,” said the plaintiff’s attorney, Brian J. Kim of Savin Bursk Law in Encino.
Kim represented plaintiff Jonathan Choto with Maureen K. Hennessey.
Choto was injured in May 2018 at a McDonald’s in Lomita after slipping on liquid that his attorneys said seeped out of a nearby garbage bag. Choto v. Dorothy D. Inc., 20STCV12764 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed April 1, 2020).
The lawsuit initially named as defendants the location’s owner, identified as Dorothy D., as well as McDonald’s Restaurants of California and McDonald’s USA. By the time the verdict was reached, however, only Dorothy D. remained.
The defendants are represented by Erin A. Chang of Mavredakis Phillips Cranert in Pasadena. Chang did not respond to email and phone inquiries by press time Monday.
The defendants “took the position that our client purchased two orange juices, and really alluded that he spilled one intentionally and staged the entire thing,” said Hennessey in a phone call on Monday.
According to the plaintiff’s attorneys,the defendants claimed security cameras had been turned off in anticipation of upcoming construction, leaving the employee who was taking the trash out during the incident as the only witness.
Hennessey said the team spent years attempting to track down the witness before locating her. According to Kim, the employee testified that management told workers to go along with the story that Choto intentionally spilled his orange juice “if they wanted to keep their jobs.”
“We learned that she caused the fall by spilling some leaking fluid from garbage that she was taking out,” Hennessey said. “She didn’t put a cone up, she admitted to that, and she also admitted to seeing the fall and seeing it be a nasty, ugly fall.”
Another major challenge for the defense was a previous back injury sustained by Choto at a different job, which defendants blamed for the pain he suffered following the fall. In order to combat this narrative, Hennessey said the team embraced their client’s medical history.
“We decided to make it the strength of our case,” she said. “What we did is we got in front of that medical history and we put it up front and we actually took the deposition of the treating surgeon from before our incident.
“What he said was, basically, ‘I fixed this young man. The surgical outcome was very good, he no longer had that low back pain that was radiating down his legs that I treated him for and he made an excellent recovery.’ However, this is a guy that, because of his two surgeries, is going to be very susceptible to injury through trauma, not injury through everyday life activities, but trauma such as a fall.”
Hennessey said that the defendants made no offers during the majority of the case, but sat for mediation on the eve of trial.
“At the end, they were asking the jury to award $58,250 in total damages,” she said. “So we were obviously very, very far apart.
Skyler Romero
skyler_romero@dailyjournal.com
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