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.