On August 6, 2021 Lee Weatherly and Kierra Brown secured a defense verdict on a hotly contested claim for punitive damages against a publicly-traded global restaurant chain.  Plaintiff first made a claim for actual damages against the company based on swallowing a metal wire that was embedded in her food.  The wire had to be surgically removed from Plaintiff’s esophagus and Defendant was forced to admit liability for these damages under South Carolina’s strict liability Food and Cosmetics Act.   Plaintiff also made a claim for punitive damages alleging that the source of the metal wire was a brush used to clean the restaurant’s grill.  Plaintiff claimed that the company knew for years that the grill brush being used in their restaurants was a danger to its customers but took no action to reduce this danger before learning of Plaintiff’s injury.   This claim for punitive damages was heard by a jury during a two (2) day bifurcated punitive damages phase of the case and, in a six (6) minute deliberation, the jury found that the company did not act recklessly causing Plaintiff’s unfortunate injury.