Must every situation turn into a lawsuit – and must the claims be so expansive?

A woman filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging a Chicago steakhouse was negligent when it served her a salad in which an olive still contained a pit.
Michelle Brass filed the suit in Cook County Circuit Court against Gibsons LLC and Mykonos Import-Export Inc.

Brass was eating a salad at Gibsons on April 10, 2004, when she bit into an olive, striking her tooth on the it, causing herself pain and injuries, the suit claims. The menu showed the salad contained pitted olives, the suit claims. Due to her biting into the pit, Brass claims she had to pay for medical care and miss work.

The suit alleges Gibsons placed a defective and unsafe product in the salad, allowed the pit to be served inside the salad, and failed to properly inspect the product prior to serving. Mykonos was accused of importing a defective and unsafe product. The suit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

Let’s see here – surely there is (or was in the past) a better way of dealing with such injuries. Business owners would pay legitimate bills for legitimate injuries, and either absorb the cost or submit it to insurance. I’m willing to bet that some such offer was made by Gibsons, if only for the benefit of PR. I don’t doubt that Mykonos would have done the same.

But “importing a defective and unsafe product”? I think that everyone recognizes that, every now and then, an olive pit is going to be missed in the pitting process and make it into the can or jar. That isn’t a defect – and pits in olives hardly make olives “unsafe”.

Sounds to me like Ms. Brass and her lawyer are out to make a quick buck out of what is really nothing more than an accident. And if the restaurant and he manufacturer were reckless or negligent in their conduct, couldnÂ’t the same be said of Ms. Brass, who obviously failed to exercise reasonable care in her consumption of the salad?

Posted by: Greg at 02:59 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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