Why didn't he just check the burger before he ate it?

[JW]

If you had a severe cheese allergy and bought a quarter pounder from McDonalds, even if you ordered it without cheese, wouldn't you physically check the burger to make sure? Considering how often fast food workers get orders wrong? Just sayin'.

http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/...or-10-million/

Man says hold the cheese, claims McDonald's didn't, sues for $10 million
by Justin D. Anderson
Daily Mail Staff
Print StoryEmail StoryA Morgantown man, his mother and his friend are suing McDonald's for $10 million.
The man says he bit into a hamburger and had a severe allergic reaction to the cheese melted on it.

Jeromy Jackson, who is in his early 20s, says he clearly ordered two Quarter Pounders without cheese at the McDonald's restaurant in Star City before heading to Clarksburg.

His mother Trela Jackson and friend Andrew Ellifritz are parties to the lawsuit because they say they risked their lives rushing Jeromy to United Hospital Center in Clarksburg.

The lawsuit alleges Jeromy "was only moments from death" or serious injury by the time he reached the hospital.

"We're interested in seeing McDonald's take responsibility and change a systemic quality control problem that endangers the lives of up to 12 million Americans with allergies," said Timothy Houston, the Morgantown lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

Houston said his clients were in Morgantown in October 2005 and stopped at the Star City McDonald's on the way home to Clarksburg. Jeromy Jackson was living with his mother at the time.

Jeromy did his part to make it known he didn't want cheese on the hamburgers because he is allergic, Houston said.

He told a worker through the ordering speaker and then two workers face-to-face at the pay and pick-up windows that he couldn't eat cheese, Houston said.

"By my count, he took at least five independent steps to make sure that thing had no cheese on it," Houston said. "And it did and almost cost him his life."

After getting the food, the three drove to Clarksburg and started to eat the food in a darkened room where they were going to watch a movie, Houston said.

Jeromy took one bite and started having the reaction, Houston said. One of the three immediately called the McDonald's to let restaurant employees know they had messed up the order, but had to cut the call short when Jeromy started having a bad reaction, Houston said.

At least two managers at the McDonald's called the Jacksons afterward to apologize for what happened, Houston said.

McDonald's representatives offered to pay half of Jeromy's medical bills -- which totaled about $700. When Houston became involved, he said the company offered to pay all the medical costs.

The plaintiffs weren't interested, and McDonald's wasn't offering anything more than medical costs.

The Jacksons and Ellifritz filed the lawsuit on July 18 in Monongalia Circuit Court.

Houston didn't know if McDonald's had yet been served with the complaint.

The lawsuit seeks damages on two counts of negligence, one count of intentional infliction of emotional distress and one count of punitive damages.

The fast-food giant has been sued before.

In one notorious instance in 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from Albuquerque, N.M., sued McDonald's after she suffered third-degree burns from spilling a hot cup of coffee in her lap.

A jury later awarded Liebeck $2.9 million.

[larrymcg421]

I order my burgers plain (with cheese, but without pickles, ketchup, etc.) and sometimes I forget to check if it has been a long time since they've got an order wrong.

I am glad the article mentions the coffee lawsuit and that the lady suffered third degree burns.

[Karlifornia]

If you suffer from a severe allergy to something as commonplace as cheese, you shouldn't be eating out at places where the staff gets paid minimum wage. I can't tell you how many times I've been to Wienerschnitzel, and ordered my Chili fries with no cheese, and have gotten home only to discover cheese on them babies. It's just how it is.

[Warhammer]

I always order things without cheese because of a dairy allergy that I grew out of (I can eat dairy now, but still hate cheese). I check every time I get something from a fast food place to ensure that it is right before I eat it. Should the fast food place have gotten it right? Yes. Should he have checked before he ate it? Yes. Should he sue for $10 million? Hell, no!

[Crim]

High degree of frivolity here.

[spleen1015]

He should have checked. That way, when he found the cheese, he could have sued for attempted murder.

[bbor]

He told five differenmt people that worked there that he can't eat cheese but he could'nt lift the damn patty up?

If he loses the lawsuit he should be made to eat cheese for a year.

[sabotai]

I used to go out with someone who didn't like the taste of burgers with cheese on them, so every time we went to Wendy's or McDonalds, she would check if they put cheese on it. She even checked whem she ordered a single from Wendy's (which isn't supposed to have cheese on it but since 90% of the people who order it ask for cheese...).

She just didn't like the taste and checked every single time. I can't imagine someone with an allergy to cheese not checking.

A few things stick out to me in that article.

"By my count, he took at least five independent steps to make sure that thing had no cheese on it," Houston said.
Except for the one that would have guaranteed him not eating cheese (physically checking himself)

Jeromy took one bite and started having the reaction, Houston said. One of the three immediately called the McDonald's to let restaurant employees know they had messed up the order
Someone has a severe allergy to something and the first thing they do is call the McDonalds? How about calling the hospital or 911?


I don't know. If I were a really cynical person, I'd suspect that they might have planned this.

Oh wait, I am that cynical.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I order my burgers plain (with cheese, but without pickles, ketchup, etc.) and sometimes I forget to check if it has been a long time since they've got an order wrong.

If you were allergic to pickles or ketchup I expect you would probably check before you ate it.

[Izulde]

I order my hamburgers plain. No lettuce, no tomato, no mustard, no mayo, no cheese, just the meat and the bun.

I always check because fast food places do get it wrong on occasion, especially if the franchise is going downhill like the Wendy's some blocks from my house.

[gstelmack]

We've been learning a lot about food allergies since my daughter has a friend with severe peanut allergies. Cross-contamination is a big thing they watch out for, and can't eat at most restaurants because of cross-contamination fears. Or in other words, if there is anything peanut-related in the restaurant, they don't go, because ordering foods that don't have peanuts in them guarantees nothing.

The odds of him getting accidental cheese somewhere on that burger are pretty high. At the very least the person making your burger likely was putting cheese on burgers before and after yours. Even if his burger was made perfectly, there might still be traces of cheese.

So it was his screwup to go in there in the first place, let alone failing to check.

[Ajaxab]

Originally Posted by JW

"We're interested in seeing McDonald's take responsibility and change a systemic quality control problem that endangers the lives of up to 12 million Americans with allergies," said Timothy Houston, the Morgantown lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

This is my favorite line of the story. A 'systemic quality control problem?' Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the fast food industry and their employee base of teenagers essentially an entire systemic control problem?

On the other hand, to suggest that one incident equals a systemic problem is laughable.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

What do you expect for a $2.00 burger/$6.00 meal? Einsteins?

I also love how the story mentions the jury giving the hot coffee woman $2.9 million ($2.7 million in punitives), but then leaves out the part about the award being reduced by the trial judge to $640,000 and then the actual settlement for less than $600,000 when the appeal was pending. And the fact that virtually every other hot coffee lawsuit against McDonald's has failed.

[MrBug708]

Since I have food allergies and they are making sure McDonald's is going to pay for not being sensitive to those with food allergies, will I get a nice slice of it?

You don't even need to lift the bun to see if it has cheese though. I think they are just hoping to settle and make some quick cash. I wonder what his allergy reaction is though? It never specifically says...

[MrBug708]

"His mother Trela Jackson and friend Andrew Ellifritz are parties to the lawsuit because they say they risked their lives rushing Jeromy to United Hospital Center in Clarksburg."

Risked their lives? I'm assuming they were also being chased the colossal squid while terrorists were waiting near the hospital?

Good Lord

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Vinatieri for Prez

What do you expect for a $2.00 burger/$6.00 meal? Einsteins?

I also love how the story mentions the jury giving the hot coffee woman $2.9 million ($2.7 million in punitives), but then leaves out the part about the award being reduced by the trial judge to $640,000 and then the actual settlement for less than $600,000 when the appeal was pending. And the fact that virtually every other hot coffee lawsuit against McDonald's has failed.

It also leaves out that she initially offered to settle for $20,000, which was less than double her $11,000 medical bill.

Also leaves out that the judge who lowered the total still called "McDonald's conduct reckless, callous and willful".

It also leaves out (as does your post) that "Company documents showed that in the past decade McDonald's had received at least 700 reports of coffee burns ranging from mild to third degree, and had settled claims arising from scalding injuries for more than $500,000."

Or that in one of those cases, the McDonald's quality assurance manager testified that he was "aware of the risk", but had no plans to reduce the temperature.

Or that right before the trial, a court appointed mediator suggested McDonald's agree to a $225,000 settlement, which they refused.

Of course, the tort reform crowd has distorted and blatantly lied about the facts of the case over and over again, seriously undermining the otherwise valid arguments they might make.

Facts come from a Wall Street Journal article reposted here: http://www.reedmorganpc.com/wsj_coffee.htm

[JeffNights]

Quick question, has anybody mentioned that he might have grabbed the wrong burger from the bag??? I mean they ordered with three people yes?

It does say they are in a DARKENED room when they started eating......

[larrymcg421]

I should note that I do not think this guy's case is valid. There is obviously no willful negligence here, as was present in the coffee case.

However, if he really did mention five times that he didn't want cheese, my guess is they were so annoyed with him that they put the cheese there on purpose.

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

It also leaves out that she initially offered to settle for $20,000, which was less than double her $11,000 medical bill.

Also leaves out that the judge who lowered the total still called "McDonald's conduct reckless, callous and willful".

It also leaves out (as does your post) that "Company documents showed that in the past decade McDonald's had received at least 700 reports of coffee burns ranging from mild to third degree, and had settled claims arising from scalding injuries for more than $500,000."

Or that in one of those cases, the McDonald's quality assurance manager testified that he was "aware of the risk", but had no plans to reduce the temperature.

Or that right before the trial, a court appointed mediator suggested McDonald's agree to a $225,000 settlement, which they refused.

Of course, the tort reform crowd has distorted and blatantly lied about the facts of the case over and over again, seriously undermining the otherwise valid arguments they might make.

Facts come from a Wall Street Journal article reposted here: http://www.reedmorganpc.com/wsj_coffee.htm

The big point for me in that case was that the cup was successfully handed to the customer, who then, instead of putting it in a cup holder or other instrument of holding hot things, she put the cup between her legs and begans to drive away.

She shouldn't have gotten a penny.

[Richard Weed]

Dude was gonna eat two quater pounders. WTF? I wanna see a pic of this pot-bellied mofo.

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by Richard Weed

Dude was gonna eat two quater pounders. WTF? I wanna see a pic of this pot-bellied mofo.

Two QUARTER Pounders?

That ain't nothin'.

- Eric
King of the 5 lb Hamburger.

[Richard Weed]

Originally Posted by WVUFAN

Two QUARTER Pounders?

That ain't nothin'.

- Eric
King of the 5 lb Hamburger.

Yeah, saw that in the other thread. NO way I'm eating a 5 pounder. Two quarter pounders are insane enough.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Risked their lives? I'm assuming they were also being chased the colossal squid while terrorists were waiting near the hospital?

Good Lord

That's where my Bullshit Detector started firing.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by WVUFAN

Two QUARTER Pounders?

That ain't nothin'.

- Eric
King of the 5 lb Hamburger.

I just know you've been waiting for someone to make that comment so you could bring that up .

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by Logan

I just know you've been waiting for someone to make that comment so you could bring that up .

Yes, yes I was.

[Izulde]

I propose WVUFan get King of the 5 lb Hamburger as a custom title.

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by Richard Weed

Dude was gonna eat two quater pounders. WTF? I wanna see a pic of this pot-bellied mofo.

We prefer not to be called "Pot-Bellied". I like "Rotund, Beautifully symettrical stomache" myself.

[Richard Weed]

Originally Posted by WVUFAN

We prefer not to be called "Pot-Bellied". I like "Rotund, Beautifully symettrical stomache" myself.

How about the Grand Canyon of belly buttons?

[terpkristin]

i didn't know someone could have a severe allergy to cheese. i thought it was mostly like all the other lactose intolerant people, you get sick, get gas, etc. live and learn i guess.

if i had to guess, him specifically saying cheese contributed to the problem. the noise in the mcdonald's, plus the quality of the drive-through radios.

also, if he bought it in morgantown, why the hell would they drive to clarksburg for the hospital??? mon general, ruby..they're really not bad hosptials (not that i know from personal experience...only hosptial i've been to in wv is davis memorial in elkins). and clarksburg is what, half an hour from mo'town? maybe 45 minutes? edit: now i re-read it and see they drove to clarksburg with the cheeseburgers from mo'town. who the hell would let mcdonald's sit that long?? ew ew ew ew ew.

sounds to me like we'd all be better off with this person out of the gene pool. i mean come on, a severe cheese allergy? we don't want that proliferating in society. too bad it didn't kill him.

/tk

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

(not that i know from personal experience...only hosptial i've been to in wv is davis memorial in elkins).
/tk

I've been to Davis Memorial more times than I care to remember. I grew up in Parsons, WV, about 20 miles from Elkins, so that was the hospital we went to when we needed one.

[stevew]

If you have severe allergies, isn't it on you to make sure as the last line of defense that you don't consume said food? Now, it'd be one thing if there was no cheese on the item normally, and they went out of their way to perhaps hide half a slice under the bun or something. But this is an honest mistake most likely....I mean it takes 2 seconds to open up the burger and check it. If I could DIE from consuming a food, I'd check.

Perhaps McDonalds needs to revisit their "allergy alerts" processes, so that an accident won't happen again, though.

Peanut allergies I'm a bit more sympathetic to, as there are signficant issues with cross contamination there. For instance, someone on a food line could cut a kids PBJ sandwich with a knife, and then cut a kids grilled cheese after wards easily. And apparently a small taint of peanut butter is deadly.

Still seems staged as hell.

[stevew]

dola,

I'm sure if he had died, there's no way a wrongful death suit would even come close to awarding his estate even close to 10 million. Let's be realistic, most of us with good jobs won't earn much more than 2.5m in our lifetimes.

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by stevew

dola,

I'm sure if he had died, there's no way a wrongful death suit would even come close to awarding his estate even close to 10 million. Let's be realistic, most of us with good jobs won't earn much more than 2.5m in our lifetimes.

Probably true, although you just know they'll settle for some horribly overpriced amount. This guy will make a good bit of money from this just because it'd be cheaper for McDonalds to settle than to take it all the way through.

[stevew]

Oh yeah, and special ordering through the drive thru is like a license for them to fuck with your food.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by WVUFAN

Probably true, although you just know they'll settle for some horribly overpriced amount. This guy will make a good bit of money from this just because it'd be cheaper for McDonalds to settle than to take it all the way through.

Not sure they will. They did fight the coffee burn victim (and continued to after the first case and got the money awarded her reduced by a lot). They also fought the "McDonald's made us fat" lawsuits and got those thrown out. They seem to have a pretty strong track record of fighting lawsuits.

[WVUFAN]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I propose WVUFan get King of the 5 lb Hamburger as a custom title.

For what it's worth, I think that would be awesome.

[stevew]

"Burger Whisperer" would be better.

[cartman]

I didn't think there were any dairy products in fast food cheese to begin with. I thought they were all made from artificial ingredients.

[EagleFan]

I think he should sue the people he was with since their first reaction when he started having a reaction was to call McDonalds. Who the hell does that? I guess they wanted to get the record of that call in so they could be ready for the lawsuit?

I also love the "endangered their lives" portion of the suit for the people who didn't have the allergy.

[Mustang]

If I have to tell someone 5 or more times to not put a certain food item on my order because it could kill me that means part of me thinks that they might forget. Therefore.. I'm not eating there.

Plus, when you are ordering an item where the most common way it is served is with cheese, I'd stay away even further. It is little being allergic to peanuts and ordering a PB&J sandwich, hold the PB.

[CU Tiger]

Man the BS detector is jumping off the couch.

He mentioned it 5 times.
First call to mcDonald (possibly to say, We gonna sue your ass and rename that mofo to McJackson's)
Then he just happened to eat in a dark room (fishy...I'll give him a pass that he was the only one in the party to ge a QP)
Then they called 911 but then risked their lives taking him to the hospital. Damn I know WV gets crap for being backwoods but is that really their Emergency response plan.
[CALLER]:Help we got a boy dieing here
[OPERATOR]: CALM DOWN M"AM WE ARE HERE TO HELP
[CALLER]: He is dieing he ate cheese
[OPERATOR]:I understand. Ill let Cooter and JImbo know and they will bee waiting and cleneed up when you get here, now hurry....

[EagleFan]

Could this be him?

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endID=71125139

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Richard Weed

Dude was gonna eat two quater pounders. WTF? I wanna see a pic of this pot-bellied mofo.

Eh, my norm is the double quarterpounder, the difference in that & 2x regular qp's is just a bun & that's not much in the grand scheme. And at 40, after about 20 years of eating that way I pretty much weigh what I weighed when I graduated from HS - 173 to 176.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

i didn't know someone could have a severe allergy to cheese. i thought it was mostly like all the other lactose intolerant people, you get sick, get gas, etc. live and learn i guess.

if i had to guess, him specifically saying cheese contributed to the problem. the noise in the mcdonald's, plus the quality of the drive-through radios.

also, if he bought it in morgantown, why the hell would they drive to clarksburg for the hospital??? mon general, ruby..they're really not bad hosptials (not that i know from personal experience...only hosptial i've been to in wv is davis memorial in elkins). and clarksburg is what, half an hour from mo'town? maybe 45 minutes? edit: now i re-read it and see they drove to clarksburg with the cheeseburgers from mo'town. who the hell would let mcdonald's sit that long?? ew ew ew ew ew.

sounds to me like we'd all be better off with this person out of the gene pool. i mean come on, a severe cheese allergy? we don't want that proliferating in society. too bad it didn't kill him.

/tk

Definitely a big difference between being lactose intolerant and having a cheese allergy. I'm assuming his throat started to swell making it hard for him to breath and that's his reaction. Nut allergy's are the only ones that seem to have a strong chance of fatality. I used to get migraine headaches from dairy products (except cheese, the "rottenization" process seemed to make it alright for me). Overtime it's gotten much better, but I still have issues. Mainly any beef or pork products. My sister, on the other hand, has a gluten allergy which makes it extremely tough when going out.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by WVUFAN

The big point for me in that case was that the cup was successfully handed to the customer, who then, instead of putting it in a cup holder or other instrument of holding hot things, she put the cup between her legs and begans to drive away.

She shouldn't have gotten a penny.

Disagree. Even with a hot cup of coffee, the expectation is that if it spills, you go "ouch" a couple of times and then walk away. While it isn't a pleasant experience, it shouldn't be forcing you to get skin grafts either.

McDonalds made a decision to serve coffee that was far warmer than normal, didn't address the fact that hundreds of people were getting major burns from how hot that was and then wanted to pretend they weren't at fault. They were at fault and the lady deserved every penny, if not more.

As for this case? It looks like a planned event to me. There is so much BS in the article (and other people have did a great job of pointing it all out) that I can't imagine how this isn't a setup. If I had a cheese allergy, I'd damned well eat my food in a well lit room and open the freakin bun. This is a fast food joint, they are going to have a % of screwups.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Could this be him?

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endID=71125139

If it is, I'm interested as to when he added the McDonalds insult to the page.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

It also leaves out that she initially offered to settle for $20,000, which was less than double her $11,000 medical bill.

Also leaves out that the judge who lowered the total still called "McDonald's conduct reckless, callous and willful".

It also leaves out (as does your post) that "Company documents showed that in the past decade McDonald's had received at least 700 reports of coffee burns ranging from mild to third degree, and had settled claims arising from scalding injuries for more than $500,000."

Or that in one of those cases, the McDonald's quality assurance manager testified that he was "aware of the risk", but had no plans to reduce the temperature.

Or that right before the trial, a court appointed mediator suggested McDonald's agree to a $225,000 settlement, which they refused.

Of course, the tort reform crowd has distorted and blatantly lied about the facts of the case over and over again, seriously undermining the otherwise valid arguments they might make.

Facts come from a Wall Street Journal article reposted here: http://www.reedmorganpc.com/wsj_coffee.htm

Huh? All good information, but I'm not quite sure if you are casting me as some kind of McDonald's apologist or tort reformer. Far from it. As I was pointing out that there are legal safeguards already in place to make sure completely ridiculous awards don't happen - hence you never hear from tort reformers about the judgment being reduced. That's why I thought it was very bad journalism by the article's author to not add any follow up facts to the quick statement of the $2.9 million jury award.

Another fact people have to understand is that the initial award was that $2.7 of the $2.9 million was a punitive award. It's not meant at all to "compensate" the old lady, but to "punish" McDonalds. The idea being that if you just tag McDonalds over and over again for small amounts, they will never change their practices. The jury figured a good punishment would be to make McDonalds lose 1-2 days worth of nationwide coffee sales -- and that equaled $2.7 million.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Disagree. Even with a hot cup of coffee, the expectation is that if it spills, you go "ouch" a couple of times and then walk away. While it isn't a pleasant experience, it shouldn't be forcing you to get skin grafts either.

McDonalds made a decision to serve coffee that was far warmer than normal, didn't address the fact that hundreds of people were getting major burns from how hot that was and then wanted to pretend they weren't at fault. They were at fault and the lady deserved every penny, if not more.

Good points. McDonalds' real wrongoing wasn't actually serving really hot coffee, it was failing to warn customers it was very hot -- so they wouldn't put it between their legs and drive away.

By the way, I believe that even after that lawsuit, McDonald's still serves the coffee at the same high temperatures -- only the warnings on the cup have gotten clearer and bigger.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Definitely a big difference between being lactose intolerant and having a cheese allergy. I'm assuming his throat started to swell making it hard for him to breath and that's his reaction. Nut allergy's are the only ones that seem to have a strong chance of fatality. I used to get migraine headaches from dairy products (except cheese, the "rottenization" process seemed to make it alright for me). Overtime it's gotten much better, but I still have issues. Mainly any beef or pork products. My sister, on the other hand, has a gluten allergy which makes it extremely tough when going out.

That's what I was thinking though. I've never heard of someone "allergic" to cheese/dairy. Just "intolerant" (to a level of getting a migraine or gas or a munked up stomach). Just never heard of someone having a dairy allergy that would close their throat. That's all I was saying. I'm sure it exisits, just never heard of it before.

Peanuts are what I commonly associate with this type of reaction, too.

Edit to add: of course, in this case, I maintain he probably caused confusion by saying "no cheese" so many times (or whatever he said exactly). If I want a quarter pounder, I say "I'll have a quarter pounder" and wham! I get it without cheese. And if I were that allergic, I'd definitely check.

And WVUFan, I <3 Parsons. Used to do a lot of caving down there, before I wrecked my ankle beyond normal repair. Tucker county is great for caving. Used to go to this awesome restaurant for breakfast. Wish I could remember what it's called. I seem to remember it being across the street from a hardware store. Like, you take a right at the stop sign and then it's on the left.

/tk

[Richard Weed]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Eh, my norm is the double quarterpounder, the difference in that & 2x regular qp's is just a bun & that's not much in the grand scheme. And at 40, after about 20 years of eating that way I pretty much weigh what I weighed when I graduated from HS - 173 to 176.

Some guys have all the luck. Seriously. I can't eat like that or else I'd blow up. This guy I work with eats Burger King or Popeye's every day for lunch. Often for dinner too. His metabolism must be something crazy.