Restaurants are often liable when foods they serve harm customers. Common complaints that hit the media include e coli outbreaks traced to burgers and lettuce or salmonella poisoning in fast food restaurants. Most people do not expect to find razor blades in salads or chicken bones in pizza. Yet, these are real life incidents with two very different outcomes.
ABC News reported in June 2014 that an Arizona woman, Jennifer Ashley, found a razor blade in her salad while eating at a Burger King in Flagstaff. The restaurant fired an employee who admitted to accidentally knocking a razor blade off a shelf into a tube of lettuce. Keeping razor blades near food preparation areas violated company policy. Fortunately, Ashley wasn't hurt. She got a refund and a free salad.
However, four years ago, Calla Felicity wasn't as lucky. According to San Jose Mercury News, while she and her mother were eating a barbecue chicken pizza at a Round Table Pizza restaurant near San Francisco, a half inch chicken bone shaped like a toothpick pierced her esophagus on both sides. Calla. who was 59 at the time, nearly died from an infected rupture. She spent months getting 11 surgeries and living through feeding tubes and liquid diets. She sued Foster Poultry Farms and Pizza Bytes for damages. In 2012, the jury found Foster Poultry Farms 60 percent at Fault and Pizza Bytes 40 percent at fault. They awarded Calla $2.5 million:
- $2 million for pain and suffering
- $500,000 for medical expenses
Calla believed it was her responsibility to take legal action to prevent others from suffering similar harm. Had her 82 year old mother suffered from the injury instead of Calla, she might not have survived.
If you experience serious injury as a result of another party's negligence, seek justice through an experienced Florida personal injury lawyer. Protect your rights and the well-being of others.