Posts Tagged ‘restaurants’

A good burger is hard to find

complains the LA Times’ David Shaw, who is surprised to find that most restaurants won’t serve him a hamburger cooked rare, or even medium-rare. With a little research, he finds that nothing in California law prohibits serving a burger rare if a customer asks for it, but he’s bound to be disappointed when he discovers that that’s not the cause: the chefs aren’t obeying a bureaucrat’s nanny-state directive, but orders from corporate headquarters to avoid lawsuits from customers who exercise their choice and complain later.

Earlier burger coverage: Sep. 30 and links therein.

Cop asks for $6M for glass in burger

18-year-old Albert Garcia, Jr. of the Bronx has a “general distaste” for police officers–so, with other McDonald’s employees watching, he put glass in Officer John Florio’s Big Mac; Florio broke a tooth and cut his mouth and throat. Garcia was caught in a sting when an undercover police officer saw him spitting on another cop’s drive-through order, confessed, and is facing assault charges.

Now Florio is suing. One suspects that McDonald’s is willing to pay Florio’s medical expenses (the press doesn’t say one way or the other) as they should, but Florio, through his lawyer Richard Kenny, wants $6 million ($1 million in “compensatory” damages) from the national chain for failure to supervise Garcia properly. Because, after all, no other fast-food chain has teenage employees who adulterate food, perhaps because of the sophisticated two-key systems (much like those used for nuclear missiles) before employees are allowed to make a sandwich. (Alison Gendar, “Hurt cop sues McD’s for $6M”, NY Daily News, Feb. 8; Denise Buffa and Marsha Krane, “Glass-Burger Cop Sues”, NY Post, Feb. 8; Erin Calabrese and Dan Mangan, “Big Mac Attack vs. Cop”, NY Post, Jan. 31). The complaint suggests that McDonald’s should’ve fired Garcia sooner because of “aberrant behavior”, but, once again, firing someone risks an employment lawsuit.

The flying shrimp of death

For decades, Benihana has advertised itself as the place where hibachi chefs put on a show while preparing Japanese food. In December 2000, furrier Jerry Colaitis went for a birthday celebration at a Munsey Park, NY, Benihana. Colaitis reflexively ducked when the chef tossed a piece of shrimp at him — and, the family says, injured his neck. (Benihana says that Colaitis may have been trying to catch the shrimp in his mouth.) Colaitis had an operation six months later on the neck; but complications from that operation required a second operation two weeks later; according to the family, Colaitis, in his mid-40s, had a blood-borne infection and died from complications from that second surgery.

This is, of course, Benihana’s fault, says plaintiffs’ lawyer Andre Ferenzo, who has sued them for $10 million. A Nassau County judge, Roy Mahon, has held that the question of causation is for a jury to decide, which means the case will go to trial. (Andrew Harris, “Benihana Chef’s Playful Food Toss Blamed for Diner’s Death”, New York Law Journal, Nov. 23).

Update: Fark comments: “You have to admit, of all the ways a Benihana chef could have killed the man–his expert wizardry with knives, his ability to dice raw meat midair, his precise spatularic stylings–he cleverly used a common shrimp. Those ninjas that disguise themselves as Benihana chefs are as cunning as they are evil…”

Another update: By coincidence, the day after this post, the New York Daily News did a story with the same headline. (Helen Peterson, “The flying shrimp of death suit”, Nov. 24; Charles Delafuente, “A Shrimp, A Duck, A Death”, ABA Journal EReport, Dec. 10).

Hooters sues its competition

Trial began last week in a lawsuit filed by Hooters of America against a rival “breastaurant” operator named WingHouse, which also relies on curvy waitresses to sell sports-bar food and drink to a clientele of young men. Hooters charges infringement of “trade dress” (undress?) and other sins, while WingHouse contends that the older chain is using the legal system to suppress competition. (Henry Pierson Curtis, “Hooters suit aims to clip upstart competitor’s wings”, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Nov. 18; Kris Hundley, “Hooters defends wings-and-winks turf”, St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 18; “Hooters competitor in court, accused of stealing ideas”, AP/Daytona Beach News-Journal, Nov. 19)(via Reason “Hit and Run”). For more Hooters litigation, see Mar. 27, 2001; Mar. 24-26, 2000.

White Castle onion rings

Michael Strauss says he bit into one of them at a Bourbonnais, Ill. outlet of the burger chain and hot grease squirted out onto his arm. Can he have a sum in excess of $50,000, please? (Steve Patterson, “White Castle lawsuit has familiar ring”, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 30).

Icky road to wealth

A Philadelphia jury has awarded $4 million to 17-year-old Anastasia Roberts in her lawsuit against Grand King Buffet, a Chinese restaurant, over an incident in which Roberts chewed on and then spat out a foreign object in a sweet potato ball which proved to be a used bandage. According to her suit “Grand King threw the bandage away, destroying evidence”, and the offending object had blood and pus on it. Roberts, who per the allegations in the suit suffered mightily from post-traumatic stress over the affair, plans to become a nurse. (Dan Gross, “A ‘bloody’ $4M award for teen”, Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 3; “A fuss over pus”, City Paper, Jan. 22-28).

Publication day

Today is official publication day for the paperback edition of my book The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America’s Rule of Law, which came out in hardcover last year. (Amazon is still listing it as forthcoming, but I’ve seen advance copies and shipments should be arriving at stores.) If you’ve only read the hardcover version, you’re missing the newly written Afterword in which I talk about the fast-food litigation, Texas’s comprehensive lawsuit reform, and many other recent topics. C’mon, order your copy today — or better yet, a bunch of copies to distribute to readers who need to catch up on this topic.

Sparing parents the temptation?

In Ireland, an official health board has objected to the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in the County Clare town of Ennis, saying its products might make children fat. “Community dietitians” on the board have insisted that before the restaurant chain has its permit application approved it should “prepare an Environmental Impact Statement to determine what effect the restaurant will have on the health of children in the Ennis area.” (“Board opposes a McDonald’s for Ennis over health factors”, Irish Times, Feb. 3). Further reading on the slimness-through-legal-compulsion crusade: David Gratzer (Manhattan Institute), “Cadbury Replaces Cholera”, National Review Online, Feb. 12; Todd G. Buchholz, “Burgers, Fries, and Lawyers”, Policy Review, Feb.; Kelly Jane Torrence, “Food Fight”, Reason, Dec. 23.

Tampered food?

A comedy cliche is the diner who tries to get out of his or her check by claiming to find a cockroach in the food. (E.g., “Victor/Victoria.”) Nowadays, such scams go beyond seeking a free meal, but include hopes for a lawsuit — the Pepsi syringe hoax being a well-publicized instance, the trampled shopper (Dec. 4) a more recent case.

We’re not saying Leila Sultan, the woman who settled a lawsuit against an Irvine seafood restaurant over an allegation of finding a condom in her chowder (AP, Jan. 12) is such a scamster. But, as the Smoking Gun points out, it “was the second time she was forced to sue over an injurious incident at a chain restaurant” — she recovered $2000 from Taco Bell in a settled 1996 lawsuit over spilled coffee. (via Obscure Store)

Federal bills seek to curb abusive fast-food lawsuits

Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Ric Keller have introduced legislation to bar obesity-related lawsuits against food manufacturers and sellers. (See “US Senator in bid to fry fast-food lawsuits,” ABC News Online, July 18). “Many Americans need to take greater care in what–and how much–they eat. But it is also time to curb the voracious appetite of the personal injury lawyers and put an end to this ridiculous and costly litigation before it gets out of hand,” said McConnell, who managed to work in references to The Onion and diet guru Richard Simmons during his remarks on the Senate floor. For the text of the bills, see S. 1428 and H.R. 339. Apparently undaunted, humorist and Cheez-Its addict Dave Barry says he has decided to “summon up my willpower and accept personal responsibility for filing a huge lawsuit against Big Food.” (“Fatal Attraction,” Washington Post, Aug. 3). See our archives for earlier commentary on fast-food suits – real and satirical.

In other obesity lawsuit-related news, The New York Times has a round-up of employment-discrimination lawsuits brought by obese workers. The newspaper reports that plaintiffs take two different approaches under the Americans With Disabilities Act: “Some claim that their employers should not discriminate against them because they are disabled. Others, using an argument that has had more success in the courts, insist that they are not disabled, and that employers unfairly assumed they could not do the job.” Washington defense lawyer Peter Petesch said: “There’s no magical mathematical formula to say this obese person has a disability and this other person doesn’t. … It’s an individualized assessment. Generally, to be fat or dumpy-looking or not as good-looking as the other applicant isn’t enough to prevail under the Americans With Disabilities Act.” (Steven Greenhouse, “Obese People Are Taking Their Bias Claims to Court,” N.Y. Times, Aug. 4).