A McDonald’s franchise in Hawthorne is seeking a second deposition of a woman who claims a wardrobe malfunction in the drive-through lane ended up as a case of revenge porn perpetrated by employees who photographed the plaintiff’s accidentally exposed breast and posted the image on Yelp in 2022.
The woman’s Torrance Superior Court lawsuit alleges negligence, negligent hiring, supervision and retention, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On July 1, the franchisee, D and T Restaurants Inc., filed court papers with Judge Gary Tanaka asking that their lawyers be allowed to question the plaintiff about her claims that her post-traumatic stress disorder and associated mental distress are all related to what happened at the restaurant.
The restaurant attorneys maintain they did not have all of the medical records they needed to prepare for the woman’s first deposition in May 2024 and obtained the complete health information they needed from Kaiser Permanente less than two months ago.
“Plaintiff’s injuries she alleges were caused by this incident are solely related to mental health conditions and defendant was prevented from obtaining any mental health treatment records for over a year,” the franchisee attorneys further state in their court papers.
The restaurant also is seeking $2,500 in fees and costs from the plaintiff and a hearing on both issues is scheduled for July 17. In their previous court papers, restaurant attorneys denied the woman’s allegations and cited multiple defenses, including a lack of damages and standing.
In her suit filed in March 2023, the woman alleges the “unauthorized taking, publication and dissemination of a photo of plaintiff’s breast is a shocking and degrading invasion of privacy” and she alleges the conduct of more than one McDonald’s employee violated, among other things, the state’s revenge porn statute.
The plaintiff was a customer in the drive-through lane of the McDonald’s in the 3500 block of Rosecrans Avenue at about 3:40 a.m. on April 2, 2022, the suit states. The order taker waited 20 minutes to take plaintiff’s order, saying she could not hear the plaintiff, according to the suit.
When the plaintiff finally attempted to place her order, she was told the store was now serving only breakfast, according to the suit.
“Plaintiff complained to the female employee at McDonald’s that they wasted her time pretending that they could not hear her and then switched the menu without any explanation, which plaintiff considered unprofessional,” the suit states.
The woman, now 34, tried to complain, but as she did so a female employee took a photograph of the plaintiff’s vehicle license plate, according to the suit. The plaintiff asked for the employee’s name as well as the chance to talk to a supervisor, but allegedly was denied in both cases.
The plaintiff posted a review of her experience on Yelp and in response, a user dubbed “Marquita L” mocked the plaintiff with the statement, “please the next time you (go) to any McDonald’s or other restaurant make sure you put on your clothes well, please do not arrive like this,” according to the suit.
The posting included an attached photo taken of the plaintiff from inside the McDonald’s with a circle around her unintentionally exposed breast, the suit states.
“With a click on the photo … a larger version of the photo would pop up in which you could clearly see plaintiff’s breast as highlighted by McDonald’s employee,” according to the suit, which further states the plaintiff did not know that her blouse had “shifted accidentally” during her interaction with the McDonald’s employees.
The plaintiff also was unaware that McDonald’s employees had allegedly taken photographs of her breast that was “inadvertently exposed from her shirt,” the suit states.
The woman was left “embarrassed, frightened and angry because she suspected that several people, some of whom may know plaintiff personally, had seen the photo published by defendant’s employee in response to plaintiff’s lawful and constitutional exercise of free speech,” the suit states.
The woman had an expectation of privacy inside her vehicle and did not expect that a photo of her unintentionally exposed breast would be taken and published on Yelp by McDonald’s employees, which has caused the plaintiff to suffer ongoing emotional distress, mental suffering, shame and ridicule, the suit states.