Most people would consider it a win if their McDonald’s fries came out too hot to eat right away. A New York woman says otherwise, and she is now suing the company over it. According to BroBible, the woman, identified in court filings as Catherine Luongo, claims she suffered “severe personal injuries” after being served “extremely hot” fries at a McDonald’s location across from Bryant Park in New York City.
As reported by The Independent, the lawsuit says employees there “fail[ed] to provide [her] with a safe order of fries” due to what it calls the restaurant’s “carelessness, recklessness and negligence.” The suit argues she should never have been “permitt[ed] and allowed[ed]” to “be served and consume extremely hot and overheated fries,” and that the incident happened “through no fault or lack of care” on her part.
It also claims she was never adequately warned about “the dangers to be encountered” while eating them. As a result, Luongo claims she suffered mouth and tongue injuries along with “a severe shock to the nervous system.” The filing also states the fries left her with “great physical pain and mental anguish,” to the point she says she was “confined to bed and home and caused to abstain from usual duties and activities.”
Hot food lawsuits against McDonald’s have a long history
She further alleges the injuries “may be permanent and lasting,” and that the damages she’s seeking exceed the jurisdictional limits of New York’s lower courts. According to Yahoo News, the complaint was filed July 21 in New York State Supreme Court, and Luongo is seeking money damages to be determined at trial rather than a specific dollar figure.
This isn’t the first time the chain has faced a lawsuit over food served too hot. The same report notes that in 2013, a Massachusetts mother sued McDonald’s after her 3-year-old daughter suffered first- and second-degree burns on her thighs from an order of fries described in that suit as “unreasonably and dangerously hot.”
The most famous case remains Stella Liebeck’s 1994 lawsuit over a scalding cup of McDonald’s coffee. According to Cornell Law School, the 79-year-old suffered third-degree burns from coffee served between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit, and a jury ultimately awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages, later reduced by a judge to $480,000 before the case settled confidentially.
This is far from the only lawsuit McDonald’s has faced recently. Earlier this year, the chain was hit with a class action claiming the McRib “does not contain any actual pork rib meat at all,” alleging it’s actually made from “lower-grade pork products such as … pork shoulder, heart, tripe, and scalded stomach.” That suit argues the misleading shape and branding are exactly what “drive sales of the sandwich, which is why McDonald’s continues to bring it back time after time.”
Just last month, a similar case played out when a Texas woman sued the company over a Sausage McMuffin she said made her “violently ill and nauseated” at another New York City location, with her filing claiming her “physical, nervous and mental systems were seriously and permanently injured” as a result.
McDonald’s did not respond to a request for comment on the fries lawsuit, and the case has not gone to trial.
Published: Jul 24, 2026 12:15 pm