Sydney, Nov. 16 (ANI): US fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken's (KFC) attempt to overturn an 8 million dollar damages decision in favour of a young Indian girl, who contracted severe salmonella poisoning from a chicken twister, has suffered a setback, with a Australian Supreme Court judge criticising the company's grounds for appeal.
Monika Samaan became seriously ill after eating the twister at the Villawood KFC in 2005 when she was seven years old, suffering brain damage that has left her confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak.
After an extended court battle, KFC was ordered to pay 8 million dollars to Monika's family to assist with the intensive day-to-day care she will require for the rest of her life, the Sydney Morning herald reports.
According to the paper, the fast-food giant elected to appeal the decision, including seeking an order that the Samaan family pay its legal costs, which is likely to amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But the appeal hit a stumbling block in the NSW Supreme Court today, with a judge ordering KFC's lawyers to rewrite their grounds of appeal because they were simply a restatement of the company's failed argument in the initial court hearing, the paper said.
KFC, however, denies that the Samaan family purchased a chicken twister from the Villawood store on the day in question, and thus maintains that it was not responsible for her infection. This argument forms the backbone of the appeal, the paper added.
But lawyers for the Samaan family claim this argument was effectively rejected by a hearing judge in April this year.
The case is set to continue. (ANI)
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