HOUSTON — A Houston man is suing Whataburger for nearly $1 million after he says his burger had onions on it.
Turns out he had asked for a no-onions order.
On July 24, 2024, Demery Ardell Wilson had an allergic reaction after eating a burger that had onions on it at Whataburger, court documents say. He alleges that he requested the fast-food chain to take them off before serving him the burger.
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If you’re serving food to the public you should probably be careful not to kill them.
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I get where you’re coming from. But I still disagree.
What you describe makes sense from a realistic standpoint BUT I don’t see why we shouldn’t hold corporations to a higher standard since they are selling this exact higher standard to us.
Yes Fastfood workers likely aren’t paid enough to care about customized orders but that isn’t a ME problem. It’s the company’s problem since they can’t keep up with their promises. So time to hold them responsible.
Also my two cents to add to the general issue: if I can’t cater to custom needs or don’t want to, I can still lie to the customer and tell them it’s not possible instead of risking to kill them through my apathy.
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That’s something I can wholeheartedly agree on!
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I have the feeling that the customer checked for onion before eating (the thick slices are easy to notice, especially if you’re seriously allergic to that) and because his eyes had this reaction 🤑🤑🤑, ate the burger with pleasure.
Especially in an environment where the pace is frantic and the workers are pushed by management to become mindless drones
What responsibility, if any, does the customer bear in avoiding harm to himself?
The onions in question are a burger topping, and are readily discoverable if the customer checks their order. I think that the customer with the special requirement can be reasonably expected to verify their order meets their needs before incurring harm.
I believe he’s already suing Sonic for the same issue. He knew (or should have known) this was a mistake that restaurants can potentially make, yet he apparently made no effort of his own to mitigate the risk by checking his food before eating.
I would argue that it is “reckless” for the customer to blindly trust the worker fulfilled the special instructions, and that this “recklessness” is the primary cause of the harm incurred.
I would say that the restaurant’s liability here is the cost of the “defective” burger.
And that’s why it’s fair to sue them. What you’re describing is callous indifference to the well-being of others that has caused demonstrative harm.
I think everyone agrees on what the fast food place is thinking. The issue is that that line of reasoning is dangerous and has legal penalties.
Think of it with “hand washing” and “fecal coliform bacteria” instead. “It’s too expensive to train our workers to wash their hands after pooping, and most wouldn’t anyway because we don’t pay them enough to care” just isn’t a defense when someone gets sick as a result.
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Just for the record, other people haven’t necessarily seen other comments you’ve made. Acting indignant about that is frustrating.
What’s callous indifference is the company having an attitude that allergy safety is too much work, not thinking you should vote with you wallet.
A lawsuit is part of voting with your wallet. More specifically, giving them a financial incentive to take food safety more seriously.
I seriously doubt the guy is going to go back to either restaurant, so voting with his wallet and not giving them money for a burger is done, and likely doesn’t cover the costs he incurred as a result of their error.
When is a lawsuit appropriate if not after a business decides to cut corners and hurts you?
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You’re talking systemic change. A lawsuit doesn’t need to cause systemic change to be worth it for the person who was wronged.
The justice system isn’t always about correcting grand social inequities. Sometimes it’s literally just conflict resolution and balancing things out. If I break my neighbor’s fence, the judge isn’t going to try to bankrupt me or have me give money as a punishment to keep me from breaking other fences. They’re going to have me pay for fixing my neighbors fence because that’s what’s fair.
If your goal is to hurt the business, there are certainly better ways than the justice system. If your goal is for them to pay for the damage they did, the justice system is pretty much the only game in town.
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It can simultaneously be dumb for him to trust the company and for it to be the company’s fault that he was fed something he specifically asked not to be served.
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People make mistakes. I’ve been a teenager working in fast food. I would not be trusting them to keep you alive.
people make mistakes, that’s why EXTREMELY PROFITABLE GLOBAL RESTAURANT CHAINS should have procedures and sufficient staffing to ensure that these mistakes don’t kill people.
Sure, they should. But that’s not the world we live in.
and that’s why we should support people who sue these companies for making mistakes :)
I’d prefer some agency doing random inspections though
yup, but until then this is what we get
Do you really expect some of the lowest wage workers working in likely shit conditions with shit managers to get 100% of orders right?
Also, if I’m deathly allergic to something like onions then I will absolutely check everything I didn’t prepare myself.
I’m of the same thinking; if there are things that you can’t eat for health reasons, then you should check any food that you didn’t prepare, yourself.
Trust, but verify.
Especially for something this simple.
Lift top bun “oh, this could kill me”
Exactly. Not blaming the victim, pls go ahead and sue the giant corp.
Still, I don’t like cucumbers, so I always take a look in my burger to make sure they got the order right. I’m not blindly trusting a tired 19 year old student worker who’s fighting a hangover. No judgment or anger there, I don’t go to fast food restaurants to get Michelin star food or service.
Exclusive photo of the plaintiff
If you verify it every time, you aren’t really trusting the workers
That’d be true if after you verified all employees
I worked fast food for a while. Sometimes we were so busy and understaffed that things became very hectic very quick. More than once, I forgot the meat on a hamburger order.
I can understand, from the employee perspective, how this could happen. It’s very doubtful it was purposeful.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a McDonalds franchise fully staffed. They don’t get enough business to have that many employees, but you can be sure they get enough business that it’s too much for the employees they do have on staff when a rush comes.
It doesn’t say that he’s anaphylactic though, just that he sought out medical treatment. I mean he could have been, but as far as I know anaphylaxis from onions is rather rare. Medical treatment could mean that he had diarrhea and got medication for that.
That being said, I wouldn’t step into a burger place with an onion allergy. Especially since the onion allergene can be airborne. I have a soy allergy and you won’t see me in an Asian restaurant.
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I’m not aware of wheat being (directly) lethal to those with Celiac’s.
Yeah I unfortunately have celiac along with many people in my family and have never heard of it causing an immediately life threatening reaction. Pain, embarrassment, mental issues, long term mortality, a whole slew of problems but not “I’m going to immediately die”.
I have it as well, thus mentioning my skepticism.
The worst glutening I experienced had some minor hypothermia, but it wasn’t enough for a hospitalization, much less lethal.
I tend to get really bad headaches, body aches, and obviously major stomach issues, it feels like the flu if it’s bad enough and I can potentially feel some lingering effects for a couple weeks. Strangely enough I’ve never had any sort of issue with any kind of wheat or rye based alcohol, even though I know it’s not considered Celiac safe, obviously. I feel almost guilty that I indulge in that stuff once in a while because I know it’s probably not good even if I don’t feel anything, but it’s just never been a problem for whatever reason
I just have a 4-6 hr “evacuation session” and once I’ve recovered from that I’m fine. It leaves me weak and sore af tho.
As far as I know, liquor is safe but beer isn’t. I don’t drink much, but I’ve never had any issues with it either.
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Edit: seems I missed the top paragraph in my blindness. Yeah, the effects stack up and the intestinal damage from consumption can lead to difficulties with nutrient absorbtion. (And you’ll struggle with dairy because it’ll affect lactic enzyme production)
No reason to take chances when the uh, post-ingestion symptoms are so severe. Not exactly gambling on long term consequences. :p
“Probably” is a big deal, though. It’s included in food stamps for a reason - many people, for various reasons, can’t prepare their own meals.
I felt the same way about the “charged” caffeine lemonade that killed that girl a while back. Regardless of whether it was correctly signed or not, why are people ingesting food and drink they can’t verify won’t fuck them up?
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