I Haz Lawsuitburger!
So, as Walter Olson explains at Overlawyered, some McDonald's used to charge different prices for Quarter Pounders with or without cheese, but then they shifted to charging the same price either way.
LAWSUIT!
Yes, some whimpering assholes -- or as the classier-than-I Miami Herald puts it in a story by Howard Cohen, "Cynthia Kissner, of Broward County, and Leonard Werner, of Miami-Dade" are the plaintiffs in a $5 millionish lawsuit because they had to pay for cheese they didn't want on their Quarter Pounders.
Of course, restaurants should have the right to price as they wish.
And frankly, there's probably increased cost involved in no-cheese-ing a thing designed with cheese (vs. automated burger-making).
By the way, as a person who eats low-carb, I always order burgers sans bun in restaurants -- but no, I don't demand that they they cut 30 cents off the tab for the bread I didn't eat, or demand that they send the busboy out to feed it to the pigeons.
There's more to this than just this lawsuit. Perhaps I'm stretching here, but I think this says something about where we've been headed as a society, and it's not looking good to me.
Between this, whiney college students filing reports because some extravert asked them, "So, where are you from?", and entertainment reporters claiming they were sexually victimized by a movie star's flirty remarks, we're looking more and more fucked...as in, decline of the American Empire fucked.
Am I wrong? You see reasons for hope? Lay 'em on me, babes.
Imagine where we’d be if Trump had run in 2008. Utopia.
Snoopy at May 27, 2018 4:00 AM
Bad link to Overlawyered.
dee nile at May 27, 2018 4:52 AM
Thanks - fixing!
Amy Alkon at May 27, 2018 5:45 AM
The US is an old country that likes to think it is a young country. Look around. The few nations that are older than the US are mostly tiny and homogeneous. For large nations the US is essentially the oldest. So there is a lot of junk in the system that has built up over the years that needs to be removed. A lot of bad legal precedent. A lot of bad laws. But that is a general complaint.
As for this case, you can sue for anything. The results are decided in court. Hopefully this case gets shut down quickly and cheaply. In general this type of behavior is nothing new. You have a couple of people who are trying to extort money out of someone who has a lot more money than they do. Pretty typical human behavior for thousands of years.
Ben at May 27, 2018 6:18 AM
Speaking of lawyers— Fucking Randazza, man... Fucking Randazza.
Crid at May 27, 2018 6:23 AM
One thing that would help a lot is loser pays for such suits. It would stop frivolous suits. Some provision could be made for those truly harmed who nevertheless lose the trial. But suing $20million for your lost pants at the dry clean or for boxes of cereal that aren't full or for cheese on a cheeseburger is simply nuts. If you don't like being charged for the cheese don't go to McD's. It is that simple. If you can't figure out that boxes of stuff are also ads trying to attract the shopper's attention and read the label for the weight, I feel sorry for you and wonder how you function.
cc at May 27, 2018 11:25 AM
In general this type of behavior is nothing new. You have a couple of people who are trying to extort money out of someone who has a lot more money than they do. Pretty typical human behavior for thousands of years.
I agree that it's nothing new, Ben, but I'd bet that lawsuits like this are also a lot more prevalent -- or, I should say, there are a lot more lawsuits like this per capita -- than there were back when the country was much younger.
Just because something is typical human behavior doesn't mean that it can't have increased a lot over time. A good example are all the mass-murder shootings we have. It's been typical of humans throughout the centuries to murder other humans but, I doubt you'll find many incidences of individual people* slaughtering large numbers of their fellow citizens (for one thing, they didn't have weapons of mass destruction easily available like we do today.)
* and, by individual people, I don't mean people like Pope Innocent III
JD at May 27, 2018 11:32 AM
A five million dollar lawsuit? Did they really pay five million dollars in cheese they didn't eat?
Yes, I get that money isn't intended to cover the cheese they didn't eat, but how is this offense so egregious that it requires five million dollars in compensation?
Patrick at May 27, 2018 12:06 PM
They are probably willing to settle for less, say 20%.
Conan the Grammarian at May 27, 2018 2:03 PM
"(for one thing, they didn't have weapons of mass destruction easily available like we do today.)"
Sorry, you're way off, here. I have a copy of an ad for a Solothern 20mm cannon, with 100 rounds of ammo, dated 1958 -- and you could order it by mail.
We aren't vile because of things. We are vile because of how we are raised, as is demonstrated by the lawsuit: "What's in it for ME?
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The suit also demonstrates the sort of litigative predation that ruined a good thing for many people. My family business was sunk because it became customary to blame a property owner for anything at all that happened on their property. Someone who came to look at the pretty boats and hurt themselves, or who could just claim to have been there when they hurt themselves, could and would sue.
The condos now occupying that space took all traces of the former marina away for that reason: it was impossible for them to earn enough selling boat storage/wharfage/dockage to pay liability insurance!
Radwaste at May 28, 2018 10:38 AM
Hmm. . . I've been getting pizzas with little or no sauce from Little Caesar's for years at the regular price. Recently they started charging an extra dollar to make it that way. Wonder how much I can sue them for.
Rex Little at May 28, 2018 5:28 PM
Wilensky's in Montreal charges $0.10 extra if they have to hold the mustard...
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/sandwich+club+wilensky+special/7500626/story.html
If you are ever in the area, I'll buy you one...
Earl Wertheimer at May 29, 2018 12:39 PM
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