Not So Finger Lickin’ Good: Nebraska Jury Awards $40,000 to Family Given Urine and Saliva Tainted Food at KFC/Taco Bell

In Omaha, Nebraska, a police officer and his family won $40,000 in a lawsuit against a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant after it served them food tainted with the saliva and urine of one of the employees. Officer Keith Andrew and his two sons were sickened by the tainted food and, for some bizarre reason, the lawyers for the restaurant thought that this would be a good case to fight in court. Now, “thinking outside the bun” will have a lasting and different meaning for Taco Bell and “finger lickin’ good” for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Andrew’s four-year-old son became violently ill with gastroenteritis and dehydration after eating the food. Yet, the owner North Platte-based Mid Plains Food and Lodging insisted on a jury trial. KFC counsel stands by the decision to try the case involving a restaurant in Sidney, Neb. — population 6000.

The issue is presumably the scope of employment and respondeat superior. Casey Diedrich, pleaded guilty last year to doing the act and fined a whopping $100 under the Nebraska Pure Food Act. The family claims that it was an act targeting police officers. However, when other employees told management about seeing the contamination, the managers did not tell the family. Remarkably, Diedrich was later fired but not for the acts leading to this lawsuit.

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