Pork pieces in Food Confirmed as Vegetarian when Ordered

[Victor9]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Connecticut
A Well Known Hotel Property in Connecticut has served me Pork in a dish they confirmed purely vegetarian. I had clarified 3 times and asked the person taking order to check with chef that it should not have any Flesh, Fish, Seafood or their broth and was confirmed each time that they donot have anything of such kind. Even after that if they serve me PORK pieces in my vegetarian dish, I consider the incident to be more intentional and careless and not that the person taking order did not understood my requirement or was not able to make me understand the ingredients.

I am not vegetarian by choice but by culture and birth and had never had this horrendous experience. I am a Hindu Vegetarian and butchering and killing living beings is against my Religious sentiments. The Property has made me commit a Religious Crime beyond recovery. Its kind of Food Poisoining to me.

I had been vomiting all night of Dec 8th and could not have any food since Dec 8 2010 till date. The Property knows this well as I had to seek medication to get relieved. The PIG pieces come in front of my eyes whenever I try to eat anything.

I am mentally disturbed, angry and agonized by the atrocious incident, I had not been able to eat anything proper or enjoy my food since Dec 8th 2010 yesterday and believe my stay at The Property was turned sour beyond compensation.

I am even thinking of donating to charity part or whole of the compensation from legal proceedings to compensate to some extent the religious guilt I am suffering from.

I can give incident in more detail if required.

I had filed a complaint at The Property site and received an apology letter. The Property tried to tip me off by paying 100USD which I denied. I donot think this as a TANGIBLE PENALTY to cover the culpable event.

I will be very helpful if I can get an advice on same and how to proceed with any legal proceedings. Also what compensation I can look forward to from them and whether I can donate them to charity. I am on business visit to USA and will return in 20 days. I currently stay in New York in USA and this incident occurred to me in Connecticut. So please also let know if I have to be present in any legal court of Connecticut in person and will I be compensated for the travel visits and legal charges for filing suit too, (from NY to CT for next 20 days and from Outside US to CT after 20 days if proceedings stretches beyond my stay in US)

Please pardon me if I am at the worng thread and guide me to the correct one.

Many thanks for your help and advice.

 

[justalayman]

what did you order? How was the pork discovered? How much pork was there in the food?



just a correction:

I am not vegetarian by choice but by culture and birth

Yes, you are a vegetarian by choice. It doesn't really matter in this situation but it is your choice to be a vegetarian.

I consider the incident to be more intentional and careless

It can't be intentional and careless. If it was intentional, it wasn't due to carelessness and if it was due to carelessness, it surely wasn't intentional.

 

[Victor9]

what did you order? How was the pork discovered? How much pork was there in the food?



just a correction:


Yes, you are a vegetarian by choice. It doesn't really matter in this situation but it is your choice to be a vegetarian.

It can't be intentional and careless. If it was intentional, it wasn't due to carelessness and if it was due to carelessness, it surely wasn't intentional.

It started like this. I called the Room Service, informed the person that I am pure vegetarian and asked her advice what can I have for dinner which should not have any FLESH, FISH, SEA FOOD or anything of such kind, no water/stock of these stuff should have been used for preparing the food. She suggested a Vegetarian Spagheti which was a Chef Special. Apart form this I ordered Penne Pasta with Tomomato sauce, Cranberry Juice, and a desert etc.
When I was part finished with Vegetarian Spaghetti, I saw something which I suspected flesh, I searched further and saw several pieces of them. I called back the Room Service and the person seemed surprised. She called me back saying "Vegetarian Spaghetti has Porchetta (PORK) and she does not know how the Chef could add Porchetta (PORK) to a vegetarian Spaghetti". I was shocked and immediately asked her to take everthing away from my room. I vomitted all night then. They didnot had a vomit medicine handy and bought me a medicine to get me relieved.

I agree I am a vegetarian by choice, but what I meant is I was not a Non-vegetarian and then turned into vegetarian so feel the case more remorse in my case.

I meant more intentional than carelessness. I might be wrong in saying that.

 

[divona2000]

...The Property has made me commit a Religious Crime beyond recovery...

With all due respect for your strong Beliefs, if you are eating in restaurants that serve meat, poultry, fish, etc, then you have probably eaten some of it before this incident.
There are health laws for restaurant kitchens to follow, but they are often broken. Canned chicken broth used to make 'vegetarian' soup, salads chopped on unwashed cutting boards where cooked roast beef was resting, a juicy hamburger yanked off a bun to make it into a veggie burger, and that bun was likely grilled on the same greasy flat grill as the burgers.
Why not eat at strictly vegetarian establishments?

 

[Victor9]

With all due respect for your strong Beliefs, if you are eating in restaurants that serve meat, poultry, fish, etc, then you have probably eaten some of it before this incident.
There are health laws for restaurant kitchens to follow, but they are often broken. Canned chicken broth used to make 'vegetarian' soup, salads chopped on unwashed cutting boards where cooked roast beef was resting, a juicy hamburger yanked off a bun to make it into a veggie burger, and that bun was likely grilled on the same greasy flat grill as the burgers.
Why not eat at strictly vegetarian establishments?

I prefer eating at a purely vegetarian restuarant or a restuarant of repute where I can trust that such Health Laws should be stringently followed. This Property I am referring to and where i stayed is also a property of repute and I expect them to follow the rule. In case they are not able to, I expect them to let me know so that I could have either not eaten anything or made alternate arrangements.
My belief apart I donot think this can be accepted as an excuse for the incident.

 

[Proserpina]

What are your tangible damages?

 

[Victor9]

What are your tangible damages?

There is no visible impact. But I did not had any food during my stay at the Property. I no longer enjoy the food I have as PORK pieces lingers my memory. And I always feel the guilt of having the flesh.

 

[justalayman]

I would think this more likely careless. I would hope so anyway. Intent would be very hard to prove. Obviously, intent would mean they wholly understood the request and not only carelessly served you something with pork in it but actually meant to give you a dish with pork in it. While not impossible to believe, it is a great hurdle to get over to prove they actually meant to serve you the pork.

Here is an excerpt from a site from Connecticut concerning jury instructions for the intentional infliction of emotional distress:

There are four elements that must be established for a finding of intentional infliction of emotional distress: 1) that the defendant intended to inflict emotional distress, or that the defendant knew or should have known that emotional distress was the likely result of (his/her) conduct; 2) that the conduct was extreme and outrageous; 3) that the conduct was the cause of emotional distress experienced by the plaintiff; and 4) that the emotional distress sustained by the plaintiff was severe.

number one can be hard to prove. If it can be proven the act was intentional, number 2 is a given in this case, in my opinion. three and four appear to have been met.


where as the negligent infliction of emotional distress is a much lower hurdle to overcome.

There are three elements that the plaintiff must prove for a finding of negligent infliction of emotional distress: 1) the defendant engaged in conduct that the defendant should have realized involved an unreasonable risk of causing emotional distress and that that distress, if it were caused, might result in illness or bodily injury; 2) that the conduct caused emotional distress to the plaintiff; and 3) the distress was of such a nature as might result in illness or bodily harm.

I would think the requirements have been met for this.


as to any particular amount of award; the jury instructions say this:

A plaintiff who is injured by the negligence of another is entitled to be compensated for all physical pain and suffering, mental and emotional suffering, loss of the ability to enjoy life's pleasures, and permanent impairment or loss of function that (he/she) proves by a fair preponderance of the evidence to have been proximately caused by the defendant's negligence. As far as money can compensate the plaintiff for such injuries and their consequences, you must award a fair, just, and reasonable sum. You simply have to use your own good judgment in awarding damages in this category. You should consider the nature and duration of any pain and suffering that you find.

A plaintiff who is injured by the negligence of another is entitled to be compensated for mental suffering caused by the defendant's negligence for the results which proximately flow from it in the same manner as (he/she) is for physical suffering.

as to the intentional acts, there is also the possibility of punitive damages as well. The instruction is quite similar to that quoted above.

so, what do you do? The best action for you would be to interview several personal injury attorneys. You need to find one that deals with this type of case. It is difficult to quantify damages so a lawyer experienced in this specific type of claim would serve you best.

 

[justalayman]

What are your tangible damages?

with this type if injury, you can be compensated for intangible damages. They are non-quantifiable but they are compensable.

 

[Victor9]

with this type if injury, you can be compensated for intangible damages. They are non-quantifiable but they are compensable.

Justalayman,
Thanks for summarizing my case. Just to understand a ballpark compensation estimate, can I seek compensation >5000 USD. Further where to hire the lawyer-at Connecticut or New Jersey. I stay at New Jersey and the Property is at Connecticut where the incident occured. What about the travel and legal expenses? Will I be reimbursed for them?

 

[justalayman]

as to the damages; that is often a very localized determination. Courts in different states, or even different locations within the same state often have their own valuation of claims. That is just that much more reason to deal with an experienced attorney.

to the state; the state where the dinner was served.

travel expenses and such; most likely not compensable. Something you would need to address with your attorney though.

 

[Proserpina]

Victor, you may wish to read:

McDonald's To Settle Suits On Beef Tallow In French Fries - NYTimes.com

 

[Victor9]

Victor, you may wish to read:

McDonald's To Settle Suits On Beef Tallow In French Fries - NYTimes.com

Thanks Proserpina for the link. I believe its the same case with me on a one to one scale.

I am searching for a lawyer in Farmington for his expert views too and how it will proceed if he has to represent me in the case.

Thanks again.

 

[swalsh411]

I don't believe your supposed religious/cultural beliefs for one second and I doubt a jury will either.

What religion/culture has a rule that says accidentally eating meat after taking reasonable precautions to avoid doing so is a "Religious Crime beyond recovery"? If you really believe it's a "crime beyond recovery" then you should be making your own food at all times.

I think you are making them up thinking you have won the lawsuit lottery.

 

[Victor9]

I don't believe your supposed religious/cultural beliefs for one second and I doubt a jury will either.

What religion/culture has a rule that says accidentally eating meat after taking reasonable precautions to avoid doing so is a "Religious Crime beyond recovery"? If you really believe it's a "crime beyond recovery" then you should be making your own food at all times.

I think you are making them up thinking you have won the lawsuit lottery.

Swalsh411,
I donot believe if ever i receive any compensation it will be big enough to be called a lottery. I am staying in New Jersey at a Property where one can make its own food and I use that to the fullest. The commercials are motivating factor for many but not for me. As I had already cited that I wish to donate the proceedings to charity to partially make good the guilt I am suffering from.
You can have a look at these sites to to know more on Hindu Vegetarianism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_vegetarianism & http://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/hinmeat.html

http://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/hinmeat.html[url] [url]http://www.oldandsold.com/books/hindu/hindu-9.shtml[url]