customer found band-aid in food

[sam2c]

What is the name of your state? CA

Im the owner of a small local restaurant. Recently, a customer found a band-aid in her food and is threatening to sue me. She says she bit into the band-aid. assuming she does not suffer any physical harm (AIDS, Hepatitus or something of that nature), does she have a case against me? Could she claim emotional harm in this situation and have a case?

Thank You

[john123456]

Originally Posted by sam2c

What is the name of your state? CA

Im the owner of a small local restaurant. Recently, a customer found a band-aid in her food and is threatening to sue me. She says she bit into the band-aid. assuming she does not suffer any physical harm (AIDS, Hepatitus or something of that nature), does she have a case against me? Could she claim emotional harm in this situation and have a case?

Thank You

Search the forum archives. This subject has been discussed ad nauseam.

[racer72]

Call her bluff. Tell her she put the band aid in the food and is trying to blackmail you.

Or you can offer to pay for a visit to her doctor and maybe throw in a free meal to two.

[Litigation!]

Originally Posted by sam2c

What is the name of your state? CA

Im the owner of a small local restaurant. Recently, a customer found a band-aid in her food and is threatening to sue me. She says she bit into the band-aid. assuming she does not suffer any physical harm (AIDS, Hepatitus or something of that nature), does she have a case against me? Could she claim emotional harm in this situation and have a case?

Thank You

My response:

Providers of contaminated ("adulterated") food may be liable on product liability and breach of warranty theories if the injury-causing substance is foreign to the food (e.g., bits of glass or wire). In such event, the trier of fact must determine whether the foreign substance (a) could be reasonably expected by the average consumer and (b) rendered the food defective or "unfit" for human consumption. [Mexicali Rose v. Super.Ct. (Clark) (1992) 1 Cal.4th 617, 631, 633, 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 145, 154, 156]

A consumer's expectations do not negate defendant's duty to exercise reasonable care in preparing and serving food. Thus, if the presence of an injury-producing natural substance is due to defendant's failure to exercise due care, plaintiff may state a negligence cause of action. [Mexicali Rose v. Super.Ct. (Clark), supra, 1 Cal.4th at 630-631, 633-634, 4 Cal.Rptr.2d at 154, 156-157 (overruling Mix v. Ingersoll Candy Co. (1936) 6 Cal.2d 674, 59 P.2d 144, to extent it bars negligence liability for injury caused by substance natural to preparation of food product)]

Therefore, if she is treated by a physician and incurs medical expense for her current and future medical treatment; e.g., testing for AIDS, then yes, she could easily state a claim for negligence and damages - - including emotional fear.

Call your insurance company and place them on notice of the incident.


IAAL

[stealth2]

Don't your workers wear gloves?

[loveumms]

I think you should pay for her to have her blood tested (but she will need another test in six months to assure she has not acquired anything).

Just for your info - transmission of the diseases people typically worry about:

Hep A and E – fecal/oral
Hepatitis B virus is in blood, sweat, tears and bodily secretions
Hepatitis C and HIV is blood

Hep B is much more infectious then HIV. Do you have any idea which person was wearing the band aid? If so then ask if they would undergoe voluntary testing (and if you can share the results with the customer). This might give the customer peace of mind. But, make sure you have signed consent from your employee stating that the test is completely voluntary and they allow the results to be shared with the customer.

[Litigation!]

Originally Posted by loveumms

I think you should pay for her to have her blood tested (but she will need another test in six months to assure she has not acquired anything).

Just for your info - transmission of the diseases people typically worry about:

Hep A and E – fecal/oral
Hepatitis B virus is in blood, sweat, tears and bodily secretions
Hepatitis C and HIV is blood

Hep B is much more infectious then HIV. Do you have any idea which person was wearing the band aid? If so then ask if they would undergoe voluntary testing (and if you can share the results with the customer). This might give the customer peace of mind. But, make sure you have signed consent from your employee stating that the test is completely voluntary and they allow the results to be shared with the customer.

My response:

Thanks for that medical tip. Unfortunately, this is a LEGAL site!

IAAL

[loveumms]

Originally Posted by Litigation!

My response:

Thanks for that medical tip. Unfortunately, this is a LEGAL site!

IAAL

Well litigation my response to you - if you can't contribute to the topic at hand then keep your responses to yourself. The OP was worried about the customer suing them considering that person was afraid of contracting an infection from the band aid found in their food. I was informing the OP of the infections that are possible (or at least the major ones) so that if the customer threatens to sue him he will know how the viruses are transmitted.

I truly think you have problems - but, we already addressed that in another post. Have you ever posted anything helpful?????

[Litigation!]

Originally Posted by loveumms

Well litigation my response to you - if you can't contribute to the topic at hand then keep your responses to yourself.

I truly think you have problems - but, we already addressed that in another post. Have you ever posted anything helpful?????

My response:

If you look at response #4, you'll see I answered the question with a LEGAL response. But, you wouldn't know a LEGAL answer if it smacked you in the face - - that's obvious.

Why are you such an ass-hole?

You don't know any law, and you don't know how to answer a question with a legal answer. Why don't you move along to a medical site?

Stay off of these forums.


IAAL

[loveumms]

Litigation - I was curious to all the "legal" information you add to this site so I looked at your last ten posts.

Not only did they not add one bit of legal advice, most of them were completely unprofessional and extremely obnoxious.

I am very saddened to read this one in particular: [url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?p=1299365#post1299365[/url]. I hope you feel like a bigger man when you write this stuff. Like I've said before, anyone can call names and feel intelligent over the internet but since we cannot see you in person it means nothing. Don't take it out on everyone else that you feel worthless. Its not our fault you made nothing of yourself and have to put others down to feel better about yourself ... gosh, its so reminiscent of high school.

I am sure that your legal credentials are stellar - you graduated from Yale, then went on to Harvard law, did a MBA at Duke and now are practicing in a very prestigious law firm where they pay you $500 an hour to do pro-bono work on freeadvice.com. Well, at least that is how you see it, the truth is you graduated from high school, worked at McDonalds and got your law degree from some degree mill (in case you don't know what that means - [url]http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/dm0.html)[/url].

OK, I'll give you post #4 as being some legal advice - but I'm sure that you just copied and pasted that from either a different post on this website or from the internet somewhere.

I never claimed to give anyone legal advice

Hope you are having a nice day ... you have certainly made mine.

To other posters: If the "owner" offers any type of compensation, even a free meal or two, wouldn't that be considered an "admission of liability/guilt"???

[Litigation!]

Originally Posted by loveumms

Litigation - I was curious to all the "legal" information you add to this site so I looked at your last ten posts.

Not only did they not add one bit of legal advice, most of them were completely unprofessional and extremely obnoxious.

I am very saddened to read this one in particular: [url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?p=1299365#post1299365[/url]. I hope you feel like a bigger man when you write this stuff. Like I've said before, anyone can call names and feel intelligent over the internet but since we cannot see you in person it means nothing. Don't take it out on everyone else that you feel worthless. Its not our fault you made nothing of yourself and have to put others down to feel better about yourself ... gosh, its so reminiscent of high school.

I am sure that your legal credentials are stellar - you graduated from Yale, then went on to Harvard law, did a MBA at Duke and now are practicing in a very prestigious law firm where they pay you $500 an hour to do pro-bono work on freeadvice.com. Well, at least that is how you see it, the truth is you graduated from high school, worked at McDonalds and got your law degree from some degree mill (in case you don't know what that means - [url]http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/dm0.html)[/url].

OK, I'll give you post #4 as being some legal advice - but I'm sure that you just copied and pasted that from either a different post on this website or from the internet somewhere.

I never claimed to give anyone legal advice

Hope you are having a nice day ... you have certainly made mine.

My response:

A typical Dufus response by the idiot loveumms. What a stupid name, too.


IAAL

[loveumms]

Originally Posted by Litigation!

My response:

A typical Dufus response by the idiot loveumms. What a stupid name, too.


IAAL

My response:

Sometimes the truth hurts

Ouch, that was a real zinger .... if you could figure out what my screen name means maybe it wouldn't be so stupid. But, I'll leave that for you to ponder tonight since I'm sure it will keep you busy for the rest of the evening.

Cheers!

[sam2c]

thanks for all your reponses. Unfortunately, all my employees claim they did have a band-aid. anyhow, i got food preparation gloves at the premises all the time. And i always instruct them to wear it when they got band-aids on. This lady waited 4 days before she called me and let me know about the situation (which i found strange). i really dont see any cuts on any of my employees fingers either. How could we find out if the band-aid is really ours or not? She could just be trying to mess with me and get some free money. She could have just put the band-aid in there herself.

[Zetetick]

Originally Posted by sam2c

thanks for all your reponses. Unfortunately, all my employees claim they did have a band-aid. anyhow, i got food preparation gloves at the premises all the time. And i always instruct them to wear it when they got band-aids on. This lady waited 4 days before she called me and let me know about the situation (which i found strange). i really dont see any cuts on any of my employees fingers either. How could we find out if the band-aid is really ours or not? She could just be trying to mess with me and get some free money. She could have just put the band-aid in there herself.

Yes my friend it is true that she could have planted the bandaid herself. For now it's a waiting game to see if you're contacted by an attorney.
When was your last osha inspect.