Living in a car?

Brits.

Why the heck would I want to make accommodations for decadent fat people? And yes, that includes me to some extent. If I cannot lose my weight, like I'm trying to, why the hell should I have to accommodate ME???

While it's ludicrous to consider his "civil rights" have been violated, and White Castle is under no obligation to change its restaurants ... I'd do it if I was CEO.

This is your customer base. Not willowy supermodels; not rope-thin marathon runners. And Americans are not likely to start getting skinnier any time soon. On the next remodel, installing seats that accommodate people of 290, 350, 400 or even 500 pounds would seem the way to go.

One of the few seriously "off" notes in the movie Idiocracy was that the junk-food-consuming Americans 500 years in the future were all our current shape and size. The studio and the insurance company would never have allowed it, but a movie where everyone except Luke Wilson was 500 or 600 pounds would have been truer to the concept.

I'm 6' 6" and probably about 90 pounds heavier than I should be (over 300 lbs), and I can still fit in the default chairs in just about every restaurant in the country. Hell, I still fit in an airline seat (and I'm even down about 30 lbs on the Eades plan :) ).

This clue free couch potato should go on the 'Richard Jeni' diet (not a video tape, not an audio tape, just some duct tape to put over the mouth to keep the ice cream from getting in).

Sounds like this idiot should quit going to eat at white castle until he gets his fat ass down to a 'normal' weight.

When I was internet dating, I deliberately choose places with fixed seating like this for the initial coffee meeting. If you told me you had a "slim to medium build", which is stated I was looking for, and you were not comfortable squeezing into a booth, your lie was exposed.

Kevin has it right, though. These are the people I would want in my restaurant.

This is so absurd. If the entire world conforms to fatassness, what motivation will people ever have to lose weight? I don't own "fat clothes". My clothes start getting tight and uncomfortable, I step up my game. No other choice. It works well. Friends I know who own wardrobes in 4 different sizes are up and down all the time. Up more than down.

I'd love to see White Castle stand their ground on this, but they won't.

I agree with Amy, suing is crazy and it makes me wonder if he went in there looking for trouble. At my local gym we just had a person come in and pull a stunt like that to get attentiion. It's a womens gym and she whipped out boob in the middle of the child care area in front of older children. When she was offered a more secluded spot to nurse, she went nuts and started an online hate camaign against the gym. She went so far as to get a protest together in front of the gym. We know it was a set up bc she had only been a member for ten days. Trust me, as a long time member, I have seen plenty of nursing mothers but none that felt the need to display their boob to the whole gym.

Kevin is right too, though. This type of person is the restaurants target demographic, so from a practical perspective they should think about making future stores " fat friendly". The choice should not be forced on them as a result of a lawsuit. There is too much government in too many areas of our lives. I recommend reading Mark Steyn's new book "After America: Get Ready for Armageddon". It has me all fired up.

@Kevin: Wall-E depicted the future people as grossly obese slobs riding around on hovering scooters in their space resort...

Some of the only good advice I've gotten from my mother in law is that the best way to keep from getting fat is to NEVER START gaining weight. If you gain a pound, get it off now. Don't wait until it's 10 pounds and you go up a size.

Anyway, agree with those who say this isn't a violation of his civil rights, but if I had a burger joint I'd work to make sure my big customers could sit and inhale all the food they wanted.

@crid: British Top Gear is at least a thousand times better than American Top Gear.

I suspect this guy is in the middle stages of BBW syndrome. I've known several people who are grossly overweight yet think themselves to be more attractive than the average in-shape person.

A case in point: one of my neighbors is a single thirty something anesthesiologist. The guy has a beautiful home, all the cools toys and cars, and a bevy of 20-30 year old women in his life. A friend of my wife who is a 60 year old woman that can best be described as looking like Meatloaf with orange hair wanted my wife to introduce her to him, and describes herself as "a hot cougar".

I'ts an interesting delusion- any idea why a person could/would delude themselves to such an extent?

I'm serious though- I just don't get how someone could be so out of touch with reality that they think they can compete so out of their league. Kinda like when you dream about being a center in the NBA.

Well if the ADA is like other federal statutes, it provides attorneys fees and punitive damages, and so incentivizes this kind of litigation. See, by stepping up to the plate he's a "hero" to the disabled.

I'ts an interesting delusion- any idea why a person could/would delude themselves to such an extent?

Have you heard of Susanne Eman, the Arizona woman who's on a quest to become the fattest woman of all time? Yes, she's real, and she has the online "gainer" community in thrall.

She's taken her photos off her website (probably to sell them), but if you Google her name, you'll find lots of stories about her. Here's her Twitter feed with her picture at the top:

http://twitter.com/#!/susanneeman

If he wants to just sit down like a normal person, he should try losing some weight. I've been going to PT for my broken shoulder and you wouldn't believe a) the number of really really fat people with back and knee problems wasting the therapists' time (drives the therapists crazy too as they told me) and b)the whining about want to be normal again but the unwillingness to sacrifice (by eating less or suffering the pain of therapy, take your pick) to get back to normal. I'm the star patient at the moment because I actually care less about how much it hurts so long as I do get better. No one is going to wave a magic wand for you. Sheesh.

This guy weighs only 290 pounds. If White Castle rearranges their seating to accommodate him, there's nothing stopping a 550 pound slob from slapping them with an even fatter lawsuit because the new XL seating is still too small for him. And if they compromise by setting a few tables in the back of the restaurant aside for fatsos, he'd probably be tempted to sue for discrimination (segregating obese customers to the designated fatso table in the back of the restaurant would be like segregating blacks to the back of the bus, in his mind).

I'm wondering what the optimal seating configuration is for a restaurant's bottom line. The obese are still a minority in most places, the morbidly obese an even smaller minority. I know that if a restaurant was always packed with wall-to-wall blimps, I'd be less likely to eat there.

"And I live....in a van...down-by-the river!!!" - Matt Foley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhgfjrKi0o

>>"I just want to sit down like a normal person"

You're not a normal person. Put on the big-boy pants and stop crying to lawyers.

Actually, the Richard Menu diet was "Stop eating, you fat bastard!"
He was hilarious. His Elvis/anal sex joke...classic.
Our loss that he's no longer here.

That would be Richard JENI. Stupid auto-correct on the touchpad.

"Tonight, I'd like to show you how to make Duck A L'Orange. I'd also like to have a three way with Martha Stewart and Cindy Crawford, but let's face it, that's not going to happen either."

And the whole "Jaws 4" thing was utterly classic.

I don't believe the guy. I work with two guys who are well over 290 pounds. One is built like a linebacker, the other is simply obese. Both manage to squeeze into booths just about everywhere we eat.

I think the guy bashed his knee like many of us have done and immediately decided it was his weight, not simply being clumsy.

So the man had a complaint about not being able to sit in his favorite restaurant, and TWO AND A HALF YEARS later is still waiting for the restaurant to do something? Wouldn't his time be better spent trying to drop weight? Also, I'm not a small girl (I'm BBW LOL) and pregnant and I have no problems fitting into any restaurant booths. I have sincere doubts that he's 290.

Oh by the way, BBW is gorgeous because you can't tell anyone that they are unattractive, or god-forbid fat. That's why Amy gets so many critiques about "working with what you have" and trying to look as attractive as possible. You should be able to sit on your ass day in and day out and someone should love you because your ass decides to resemble the couch. As someone who needs to lose weight, I hate the BBW trend, with plenty of elementary school children already starting to be "BBW".

He wants White Castle to remake every booth so it is able to accommodate the morbidly obese?

Ever sat in a booth that can accommodate the morbidly obese? I have. I could barely reach the table. It was like being back at the kiddie table.

It's probably not a good business model to force your adult customers relive the worst aspects of their childhood family reunions.

The problem in the restaurant with the booths is a lot easier to fix than people are making out to be. All they'd need to do is stick a sturdy chair and a single-person table in the corner, without changing the booths at all. Voila, they've accommodated the few people that come in who are too large for the booths.

That being said, people sue for way too much these days. This guy actually did fit in the booths, it was just "uncomfortable" and he "banged his knee on the table leg". If he really didn't want to use the booths, he can eat in the car, or take it home. Or do what he's doing now.

I notice that despite him suing the company, he still eats there. He just sends his wife to get the food instead of going himself.

I'd probably fit in a booth at White Castle, but sadly, there aren't any near me so I've never been to one. I don't see why restaurants can't be designed to accommodate both tables & chairs and booths. I run a business and I'd never make a promise to a customer that I didn't intend to keep, so I don't understand why they told him they would change the booths and then do nothing. I think the law suit could have been avoided if White Castle kept their promise.

RE: "Deluding yourself" and "dating out of your league."

I'm a short, fat, middle-aged woman with a face meant for radio but my husband is a tall, slim, handsome, 10 years younger snowboarder who loves me exactly as I am.

I don't fault people who seek slim and fit partners and although you might find this hard to believe- not everyone is attracted by appearances. I can't choose who to be attracted to. It's all about chemistry. Age, height, weight, and other physical attributes are just irrelevant.

If this isn't nuisance litigation, than it doesn't exist.

Vix, you are so practical. It is refreshing.

And +10 for "a face meant for radio" - Funny! I'm not beautiful either. Also, no White Castles near me. Or snowboarders! Boo!

Conan already brought this up, but I have to second the opinion that the booths meant for obese people are awful to sit in when you're not obese!

I hate when I have to sit on the very edge of the seat just to reach the table, and I can't lean back into the seat comfortably.