Slippery Lawsuit Logic

Jacob Sullum | February 14, 2005

On Friday McDonald's announced it had settled a lawsuit that faulted the chain for dragging its feet on a promised reduction of trans fat in its cooking oil. The company will donate $7 million to the American Heart Association and spend another $1.5 million keeping the public apprised of its efforts to cut back on trans fats in its dishes. John Banzhaf, a leading cheerleader for obesity litigation, was so excited about this development that he issued not one, not two, but three press releases (so far), counting the settlement as one of six "successful fat lawsuits."

Like the other cases, this one did not involve an obesity claim; it was a "fat lawsuit" only in the sense that it involved cooking fat. By Banzhaf's standard, if a customer recovered damages after slipping in a puddle of grease in a restaurant, that would count as a "successful fat lawsuit" too.

Comments

|2.14.05 @ 1:42PM|#

Jacob, you've got it all wrong. Banzhaf is saying it's a PHAT lawsuit, not a fat lawsuit. Any suit the lawyer receives a huge contingency for is PHAT, my man!

|2.14.05 @ 2:03PM|#

"The settlement is the result of litigation from a San Francisco area activist who has been seeking to raise public awareness of the health dangers from the trans fatty acids in hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils."

It's funny how, these days, "activists" who are supposedly seeking to "raise awareness" of certain things, are so apt to sue the fuck out of anyone who they think is out of line. Public Awareness can be attained via avenues other than the courts.

But, hey, good thing they're looking out for me. And all this time, I thought that Micky-Deez's french fries were health food!


McDonalds(supposedly) doesn't inform the public about its progress with trans-fat reduction in a fashion that satisfies a few nanny-statists, so they get sued. In order to avoid going to court and being dragged through a potentially nasty & costly court battle, they settle.

And this is somehow a "successful fat lawsuit"? Banzhaf is a big piece of deep-fried shit. His motto is "sue the bastards", and his license plate says "SUE BAST". Classy fucker.

|2.14.05 @ 2:25PM|#

Banzhaf is a big piece of deep-fried shit.

But more importantly, does he have a high trans-fat content?

|2.14.05 @ 3:00PM|#

The food-nazis have just caught on to the Jesse Jackson style of activism. Threaten, settle and then trumpet the results as a "victory" for fat people or black people...etc.

|2.14.05 @ 3:41PM|#

People should boycott McDonalds - not for any decepetion, but for giving in to obvious extortion.

|2.14.05 @ 5:12PM|#

People should boycott McDonalds - not for any decepetion, but for giving in to obvious extortion.

Yeah. If they don't quit giving in to extortion so easily, I'm going to sue their asses.

|2.14.05 @ 5:25PM|#

Banzhaf is a big piece of deep-fried shit.

Happy Valentine's Day, Evan, by the way.