I've laughed about frivolous lawsuits throughout the ages in America. My earliest memory is of the woman who got burned by hot coffee at McDonalds then successfully sued them for tons of money and from that point on there were special cups that said "Caution, coffee is hot!" or something obvious like. As it turns out the coffee was much hotter than it is supposed to be and the woman suffered bad burns because of it but that doesn't change the fact that it isn't McDonald's or anyone else's fault when you spill something on yourself. It it was true I would have a lot of money headed my way by the manufacturers of BBQ sauce.
Another case that sticks out in my mind is where a couple successfully sued the chemical manufacturer of a weed killer called "Roundup." They elected to use it, it was covered in warnings, and I have used it before as have millions of other people. The smell of this spray alone is enough to let you realize that it probably isn't a good idea to have prolonged exposure to it. After developing cancer which could have come from a ton of other factors they sued the company for an astronomical amount of money in the billions and while I did not follow up I am quite certain that they ended up receiving considerably less than this. Keep in mind that I am not referring to the class-action lawsuit against Monsanto about the far-reaching damage of this chemical, that one is deserved. I'm talking about two individuals that were awarded an absurd payout for themselves over an individual claim.
The "justice" system in the United States is definitely broken when courts are awarding far more money in damages to an individual than the company that is being sued even has to give them even if forced to do so. This also just encourages other people to pursue the same path to riches when eventually these squeaky wheels end up getting greased to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
I think those two examples that I just recalled are part of the reason why there are nutjobs out there that think they can get away with suing over just about anything. Such as case was brought to my attention recently as a man in Chicago is suing restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wing or "BW3's" over their boneless chicken wings.
This is the statement for the justification of the class-action lawsuit and I promise I am not making this up
the restaurant chain falsely advertises its boneless wings as the real deal, when in reality, the wings are nothing more than chicken nuggets.
The plaintiff has stated that he was duped into believing that his boneless chicken wings were going to contain chicken only from the wing portion of a chicken when in reality it is chicken from all over the place, just like a chicken nugget is. I think that any reasonably intelligent person would look at this product and be able to tell that of course they are chicken nuggets and if that isn't what they want, order something else and move on with life. But unfortunately people are crazy and our justice system embraces this sort of behavior.
The customer is claiming financial and emotional loss over being duped by BW3's false advertising and while it has not been revealed how much money he is seeking, "emotional loss" can be interpreted very differently by a lawyer than it can be by a normal human.
This case is something that I take personally because when I was in college one of the very first BW3's opened in the same city that my university was in. They were not a massive chain back then and only had a few shops. The place was immediately extremely popular and was one of my first exposures to the delight that is buffalo wings. The prices were fair, the service was fast and the beer was ice cold and there was something crazy like 25 beers on tap. So yeah, I have an affinity towards BW3's because I spent a lot of time there especially on Tuesdays when they had 20 cent wing night.
The main problem I have with this is that this is very clearly a frivolous lawsuit but yet a bunch of people's time and money is going to be taken up even entertaining this nonsense. Should I sue McDonalds because there is no actually flurry in my McFlurry? How about if I disagree about what "big" means in my Big Mac or think that the "Whopper" isn't large enough? Am I entitled to thousands or millions of dollars because they "duped" me?
This guy and many other people like him are probably backlogging the courts with stupid shit in the hopes that one of their cases actually sticks for some reason. BW3's is an enormous company and can no doubt handle the legal fees but what about when we start suing mom and pop stores who are barely even getting by? How long will this sort of behavior be tolerated.
For me, if you are stupid enough to believe that anyone would actually have a chicken wing deboning machine in the back, you should probably just stay home in your padded room so you don't hurt yourself. That is not the case with this guy I reckon though, he is trying to get a settlement from the company and get paid off just to go away. The lawyer no doubt would prefer this as well because if this goes to trial can you imagine being on the jury?