Woman Sues Mcdonald's Over Reptile In Her Fajita

BILOXI, Miss. - There's an old joke: What's worse than finding a worm in the apple you're munching? Answer: Half a worm.

Sharon Moran Husley said Friday it wasn't funny when she found half a lizard in her chicken fajita. She sued the McDonald's restaurant in Long Beach, Miss., for a minimum of $30,000 plus punitive damages and court costs. The owner of the McDonald's sued its supplier, KMB Produce Inc. KMB denied responsibility.

A court date for a trial by jury is pending.

According to Husley's complaint filed in August 1992 in Circuit Court in Gulfport, she went to the McDonald's on U.S. 90 in Long Beach about 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 7, 1991, and ordered two chicken fajitas, a large soft drink and fries to go.

Returning to her office at Custom's Floor Covering, Husley ate one of the fajitas and was finishing the second when "a foreign object, which she believed to be a piece of chicken at the time, dropped from the McDonald's food product," the complaint states. "Upon closer examination, (Husley) was able to identify the foreign object as the head and upper thorax of a small lizard, the remainder of which she had unwittingly, but indisputably, devoured."

Husley became nauseated and remained ill that day and the next, according to the lawsuit, which also states that Husley suffered emotional distress as a result of discovering the lizard in her sandwich.

"You could see where I had bitten into it. You could see my teeth marks," Husley said Friday. "The eyes and the mouth and the feet were left. It had been fried."

Husley said she called McDonald's and asked for a refund, but was refused.

Long Beach franchise owners Lowell and Nancy Bussler denied responsibility for the lizard in their answer to Husley's complaint.

Bussler concluded that it was highly improbable if not impossible that any foreign object, including insects or lizards, could become part of a chicken fajita in his restaurant.

Husley said she wanted a trial date so the 2-year-old affair can end. She said her lawyer still has what's left of the lizard. "It's frozen."