Court: Man Burned By Fajitas While Praying Can’t Sue Applebee’s

[Panich52]

Court: Man Burned By Fajitas While Praying Can’t Sue Applebee’s – Consumerist

An Applebee’s customer who says he was burned while leaning over a plate of hot fajitas to pray before his meal can’t sue the restaurant, an appellate court ruled yesterday, because the hot food presented an “open and obvious” danger.
A New Jersey man had been seeking damages from his local Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar after an incident dating back to March 2010, reports the Courier-Post.
He claimed that as he bowed his head “close to the table,” he heard a “loud sizzling noise followed by a ‘pop noise’ and then felt a burning sensation in his left eye and on his face.”

-snip-

The customer appealed, but the two-judge appellate panel agreed, noting that the risk from a plate of hot fajitas was “self-evident,” the court ruled, saying Applebee’s had no duty to warn [the customer] that the food was sizzling hot and should be approached with due care.”

-snip-

More
http://consumerist.com/2015/03/05/court-man-burned-by-fajitas-while-praying-cant-sue-applebees/

•••

So...was that God answering his prayer?

[immoderate]

1. If god hates the guy that much, there must be a reason.

But it will not be comprehensible to us.

--imm

[awoke_in_2003]

62. he works in mysterious ways...

sometimes they involve fajitas

[louis-t]

2. Ah jeez, he'll be on Hannity next week claiming

Applebee's is anti-Christian.

edit: I have relatives in the restaurant business. Once a month, some joker claims to have been burned by French fries or too-hot tea or some shit.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Apparently, God has added fajitas to the don't eat list.

[Nye Bevan]

4. 11. Thou shalt not pray to the Lord our God by leaning thy head over hot fajitas (nt)

[leftofcool]

10. Commandment #11

[fadedrose]

5. Wish you could go to court if the food is not hot

That annoys me when I sense that the food has been sitting on a shelf too long. Some places would go out of business just to pay for lawsuits...

[joeybee12]

6. Another assault on religious liberty!

[Logical]

7. Another frivolous lawsuit by some scum bag lawyer that end up hurting legit ones. nt

[Autumn]

8. I'm thinking God has a hell of a good sense of humor

Or maybe God was trying to burn a mote out of his eye?

[awoke_in_2003]

63. Matthew 7:3

"Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the fajita that is in your own eye?" King Jaime Version

[Wella]

9. If he were not praying, you all would be against this ruling; hot grease in the eye means

that the fajitas were either too hot or fried in too much oil. Any injury coming from inappropriately prepared food should be compensated.

[Nye Bevan]

11. Ummm...... fajitas are supposed to be hot and sizzling.

Nobody who sticks their face into a plate of them (praying or not) should get a dime.

[Wella]

12. But not dangerously so.

If I had a child who was trying to smell the fajitas and got a glob of hot grease in the eye, I would sue too.

[Nye Bevan]

13. I give up (nt)

[GGJohn]

17. And you could expect the same results from such a lawsuit. eom.

[Wella]

30. I think the decision was wrong

When corporations do things that result in injury as a course of their normal functioning, they need to be held accountable.

[GGJohn]

36. One problem with your conclusion.

Applebee's didn't do anything wrong in the course of their normal functioning, only an idiot would put their face close to a sizzling, popping plate of fajitas, anyone who has ever visited an Applebees and had their fajitas knows that's how they're served.

[Wella]

37. That's not a problem: that's an assumption on your part.

There are many people--not idiots--who might not be ready for boiling grease flying at them, regardless of the dish.

[GGJohn]

40. The only assumption is you thinking that this idiot had a legitimate lawsuit

for his stupidity, and the court recognized that it was a lawsuit without merit.

[Wella]

42. The lawsuit was legitimate and you have not countered my argument--just gotten mad.

Your lack of a logical rejoinder is enough for me.

[GGJohn]

45. The lawsuit was not legitimate, as evidenced by

the Court dismissing it.
Mad? I hardly think so, very, very few things get me mad these days, certainly not a discussion on a chat board.
I'm more amused that you seem to think that there was a legitimate lawsuit here, you and you alone think that.

[COLGATE4]

81. Except when an injury is caused by disregarding

an open and obvious danger. (Which is what the court ruled here).

[liberalhistorian]

22. How about doing

your job as a parent and preventing the child from doing so in the first place? Fajitas are always, always hot and sizzling, and hot food, especially fajitas, should always be approached with caution. That includes being a parent and warning and preventing children from getting too close to them at first. You would not and should not get one fucking dime. It's because of people like you that society has such negativity toward my attorney husband's profession

[Wella]

23. How about the restaurant warning the customer that boiling grease is shooting from the plate and

that there could be burns on skin or eyes from it? Clearly, this gentleman was not warned in advance.

[Quackers]

28. Do we really need restaurants protecting us from ourselves?

[Wella]

31. Do we really need corporations protecting us from their negligence?

No cute cartoon. Too serious an issue for that.

[GGJohn]

38. Problem is that there was no negligence on Applebee's part,

the negligence was on that idiot putting his face close to sizzling/popping fajitas.

[Wella]

41. That's where you and I disagree

There was most definitely negligence: in not warning the customer, in (most likely) inappropriate cooking techniques that resulted in boiling flying grease.

I would need more facts about the food preparation in general, but there was a real case here. I think the wrong decision was made. It saved the corporation a packet, but that doesn't mean it was right.

[GGJohn]

44. Your the only one here who thinks Applebee's was in the wrong,

so it's not just me you disagree with.
I would think that the skillet containing the sizzling/popping fajitas would be all the warning needed, but apparently not with this idiot.
As far as a real case here? The Appellate court disagrees with you and the plaintiff.

[tblue37]

90. Actually, if the server didn't issue an appropriate warning, then I have to agree with Wella. nt

[GGJohn]

91. Every Applebees I've ever been too does issue a warning about their fajitas

and I have to believe that this one did also, and it would seem the court believes that the man did not use common sense when he stuck his face close to the sizzling skillet.

[tblue37]

93. As I mention in my looonnnggg post, I can imagine that the judgment might have

been determined by evidence we haven't heard that the server did issue such a warning. They slways *should* with superheated food.

OTOH, I also can imagine an exhausted, super busy server forgetting to issue such a warning during a rush. I wish we knew whether he was warned, because that would make a difference in how I would allocate responsibility in this case.

[GGJohn]

95. It would be interesting to read the court transcripts to see

why the judge reached the decision he did.

[Duckhunter935]

52. The servers also warn when

they bring the food. Every time I get that meal they warn it is hot.

[6000eliot]

70. If you're afraid of sizzling fajitas, then don't order them,

but if you do and get burned by them, it's your own damn fault. Fajitas are HOT by their very NATURE. If they aren't sizzling, then they aren't fajitas. How hard is this to understand?

[Oktober]

102. If he had ordered soup, stuck his face in it and drowned....

Should there have a been a warning? Does his widow (the poor woman) deserve compensation from the restaurant?

What if he took his fajita and shoved it up his nose... Piece by piece ... Resulting in sinus damage. Does he deserve directions and a chart?

How stupid do you think people are?

[tblue37]

85. From Wikipedia (yes, I know--but for something like this, it will do):

In many restaurants, the fajita meat is brought to the table sizzling loudly on a metal platter or skillet, with the tortillas and condiments.[/div class="excerpt"]

Maybe he would know this--unless he had never had fajitas before, and, yes, it is rare to order such a dish without prior knowledge, since usually one would have been encouraged to order it by a knowledgeable companion that first time, and said companion would issue the common "Careful, that's hot!" warning.

It is also possible that the server issued a warning, as well. Almost always any unusually hot dish is served with such a warning, and it might be the case that there was evidence that this man was warned, and that is what swayed the judge.

However, unless such a warning was issued by the server, I think the man might have had a reasonable case, since any approach to the dish or the food could have caused injury. I have never eaten fajitas, so until reading that Wikipedia passage above, I had no idea fajitas were served *that* hot. I don't pray, but if I am eating out with someone, I am focused on conversation and could easily touch or taste my food without realizing that it is much hotter than food I normally eat. I would hope for a warning from either the server or my companion before digging in to an unfamiliar dish that is so much hotter than I expect and that has hot grease popping up above the plate!

I am reminded of that poor woman who suffered such severe burns from overheated McDonald's coffe that she required plastic surgery on her nether parts. People sneer at that lawsuit, but McD's had been warned that it was too hot, and since she was in the drive-through, placing the cup between her knees as she did was, though perhaps unwise, a move that is common enough to be predictable.

As Wella says, a child, a distracted person, or someone unfamiliar with how fajitas are often served in restaurants is genuinely (and *predictably*) at risk of popping hot grease droplets from such a dish, so it should always come with a warning by the server. If this man was warned, then I can understand the judgment. And as an atheist I find the physical posture of praying *so* close to one's plate absurd. But I have beloved and elderly religious relatives. I could imagine one of them leaning a bowed head to pray over a meal this way without realizing the danger, unless they had been warned.

If the case (and thus the judge) was in a region where *everyone* is assumed to be fajita familiar, then I could see that assumption influencing the conclusion that he should have known better. But since people don't always eat food they are familiar with in restaurants, I do think superheated food should come with a warning, *especially* if they hot parts are not guaranteed to stay on the plate until the diner uses a utensil to lift them to his face!

[tblue37]

88. When I waited tables many years (decades!) ago, we always did warn if the plate or the

food was hotter than a customer might expect. In my long response to you below, I mention that *if* he was properly warned, then that might have been what led to the judgment that he should have known.

Do we know for sure that there was no warning? I ask because I agree with you that superheated food should always come with a warning. If that food might have the hottest parts (in this case, the grease droplets) popping up off the plate, the warning should be specific--not just, "Careful, that's hot!" but, "Watch out--the grease can pop up off the plate and burn you if you get too close!"

[LiberalElite]

100. If boiling grease were really

shooting from the plate why would anyone have to be warned about it other than children or the blind?

[Renew Deal]

86. You and the kid would learn an important lesson

About sticking your face over a hot pan.

[phil89]

89. Then you're

Part of the problem. These frivolous lawsuits cause a lot of problems. If people can't manage a fajita they have problems

[WinkyDink]

99. If you let your child stick his shnozz that close to a SIZZLING PLATE, YOU should be the one sued.

[GGJohn]

15. Uhhhh, every time I've ordered the Fajitas,

they come on a skillet sizzling hot and popping, that's the way they're served at Applebee's.
Common sense says that if the food is sizzling, you don't lower your face to it.

[uppityperson]

18. How was the food "inappropriately prepared"?

[Wella]

32. It sounds like it was far too greasy

Then again, Applebee's is not a real Mexican restaurant.

[COLGATE4]

83. That does not make it a violation of any 'duty to

properly prepare' food. Applebee's (or any other restaurant) does not have a duty to its customers to make sure the food it seves is "not too greasy".

[Iggo]

19. The praying part is the funny part.

The burned face, not so funny.

[tishaLA]

26. To me, the funny part is Applebee's+Fajitas+Praying

it's like a phrase you'd come up with if you had the question, "What is the most stereotypically Bible-belt headline you can come up with?"

[Iggo]

34. I'll give ya that.

"...close to the table..." was the visual that did it for me.

Somebody was puttin' on a show and got burned.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. Nope.

That's how they present them, how they advertise them. They're not 'inappropriately prepared food'. They're food prepared exactly as advertised. I think 'sizzling' is even in the menu name for the item.

[we can do it]

29. No fajitas always sizzle, any dumbs knows that.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

55. It is common knowledge that Fajitas are served on a sizzle plate and come out still cooking

Anyone who does not know that should probably not be leaning over a hot sizzle plate to do anything (pray, swap out a contact, examine the wood grain on the table) should probably not be going out in public. It's Darwin Award level stupidity, and the Judge (properly) called it that way.

[tblue37]

92. In my long response above I mention that I did not know that, never having had fajitas.

I could imagine someone unfamiliar with the dish trying it at the urging of a friend. When I waited tables we always warned a customer if a plate ir the food was hotter than they might expect.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

106. In my short response, I've suggested activities one might avoid until acquiring such knowledge

You've waited tables and were unfamiliar with Fajitas? I'm guessing you never waited tables in casual dining (i.e. Chili's, Fridays, Houlihan's, etc.)

[tblue37]

107. I am 64. I waited tables in the 1960s & 1970s in PA.

Fajitas were not on the menus in those restaurants.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

108. I first started seeing them in the 80s

They are generally placed onto cast-iron sizzle plates, and brought sizzling and smoking into a dining room. It's not as showy as cherries jubilee or bananas Foster, but it's the same sort of idea.

[Ilsa]

78. Please ask the server to bring yours out lukewarm

next time. I know that I want mine sizzling hot. And I prefer my meat to be cooked thoroughly.

[S_B_Jackson]

105. Fried Fajitas????

Sacriledge! They're grilled the sizzling is coming from the raw onions (and maybe peppers) that are cooking on that screaming hot cast iron plate...I've never been served fajitas but that the waiter or waitress doesn't warn "This plate is very hot!".
The customer deserves nothing.

[Panich52]

109. Religiously defensive, aren't you? It's not the praying, it's that he got his face too close to a

plate containing hot oil.

Have you seen those tv ads "when food attacks"? It's the nature of the dish.

[JaneyVee]

14. THIS IS THE MOST 'MURICAN HEADLINE EVAH!!!

[TexasProgresive]

16. Lame joke

An Texan had a serious car accident in Mexico. Being a bit on the stupid side he was not wearing his seat belt and suffered a bad head injury. He woke up in the hospital to find a doctor smiling down at him.

"Senor, you are a very lucky man. You fractured your skull when you banged your head against the windshield. It's OK, no bleeding in the brain, but we had to replace some bone with a steel plate."

The Texas reaches a hand up to his head.

"Careful, senor, the plate is hot!"
__________________________________________________________________

The last line is familiar to anyone who has eaten in a Tex-Mex restaurant, especially fajitas which are always served sizzling. And who said that you need to bow your head to pray?

[sendero]

20. Perhaps this gentleman...

... should pray for just a tiny bit of common sense.

[Iggo]

21. Shoulda prayed in a closet.

Much safer.

[Feron]

79. Or alternatively..

Pray after ordering, but before the meal was served.

That's what my religious friend does and it prevents a hot meal splattering in your face.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. noting that the risk from a plate of hot fajitas was “self-evident,

Yes indeed

[devils chaplain]

25. Apparently there's an untapped market for a Fajitas for Jesus chain...

"Hell should be hot, not your food." n/t

[GreatGazoo]

33. Perhaps he should have ordered the Holy Mole' instead. ;-) n/t

[Manifestor_of_Light]

35. The reasonable man standard was applied.

A reasonable man wouldn't hang his head over sizzling fajitas for any reason.

A reasonable man would know better than that.

[Nye Bevan]

39. If restaurants were forced to start serving their fajitas at "slightly warmed up" temperatures

to protect themselves against lawsuits from idiots who stick their faces in them, I would not be happy.

This was the right decision.

[titaniumsalute]

43. God's punishment for one of his creations eating that shit at Applebees

[Nye Bevan]

47. LOL. A vengeful God indeed.

Now, if He could just punish the people who eat at Olive Garden in Times Square.....

[titaniumsalute]

49. LOL...I didn't know there was an OG in Times Square

I worked in NYC for years...but haven't been in Times Square is quite some time.

[Nye Bevan]

51. That actually sparked one of the most all-time epic DU flamewars

and has been a running joke here ever since.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=5279955

[titaniumsalute]

54. Wow that is hysterical!

There are a couple places in TS that are good...

We used to eat at Virgils BBQ, Tony DiNapolis, and Ollies. I think Ollies is gone (was Asian.)

But what is ideal is to hop on the N or R downtown and hop off at either 14th St Union Station or 8th St. The East Village has SO many good, affordable places.

[Danmel]

82. Ollie's is gone

Uptown branch near Lincoln Center closed not to long ago, too. Great place for big bowl of noodle soup.

[titaniumsalute]

98. Yeah that's sad. Great place.

They were ALWAYS packed...wonder what happened?

[underpants]

46. Did he bumped his head on the salad bar sneeze guard too?

[muntrv]

48. so when does Pat Robertson start calling Applebees agents of

Satan?

[lame54]

50. He should sue God

[guillaumeb]

53. One time I leaned very close to a plate of very hot shrimp stir fry

because I though I saw the Lord's face in the sauce. It was actually slices of pepper and onion.

Can I sue because it was not obvious to me that hot food is generally served hot?

Does this mean that cold food is served cold?

[bigwillq]

56. Good.

How ridiculous.

[Sheldon Cooper]

57. How many people here feel the same way about the lady who suffered third degree burns from

spilling her McDonald's coffee in her lap? I mean, coffee is supposed to be served hot, right? I'd post pictures, but they are far too graphic. If you're curious, google Stella Liebeck.

[Dr. Strange]

58. Exactly.

What's the difference?

[Orrex]

66. What a stupid question

They don't serve fajitas at McDonalds.

[Dr. Strange]

67. Fine.

"McFajitas".

Happy now?

[Orrex]

75. Happy as a meal.

[GGJohn]

61. The McDonald's case is totally different, you can't see

how hot the coffee is, whereas, with the fajitas at Applebees, you can actually see and hear the sizzling and the servers warn you that the plate and food is hot.
FWIW, I think the jury award was fully justified in the coffee case.

[COLGATE4]

84. Except in the McDonalds' case:

1 - Their coffee was served (if memory serves) some 15 degrees hotter than anyone else in the industry. (McDonalds tried to claim that this was because it 'enhanced flavor' but testimony showed that McDonalds mandated a higher temperature to dissuade customers from free refills).
2- Expert medical testimony established that this difference in temperatures meant that a burn would be a third degree burn rather than second degree .
3- McDonalds' attorneys had already warned their Brass about problems with the high temperature and spilling, advising them to either lower the temp of the coffee or put a warning on the lid of the cup. They ignored the advice, putting a tiny warning around the rim of the cup where it was not obvious.
4- Ms. Liebeck initially only sued for her medical costs, (again, if memory serves) some $20,000. McDonalds, in a gesture of corporate citizenship told her to pound sand. Only after that did she persue tort damages.

[Cal Carpenter]

96. Thanks for posting this

I didn't have the patience to do it but I'm glad someone did.

There are so many myths about that case, it became the butt of jokes, but it really is a shining example of deliberate corporate irresponsibility/negligence.

[tblue37]

94. I mention her case in my long post above. I think the cases are similar. If the man was

*properly* warned about superheated food, that is one thing. But if he wasn't, then I think he has a reasonable case.

[Cal Carpenter]

97. See post #84

The cases are not similar. Unless someone finds evidence that Applebee's was knowingly and deliberately serving the fajitas at a dangerous and unnecessarily hot temperature despite knowing it will result in injury, and ignoring their own lawyers advice to cool it, this is nothing like that case.

[Panich52]

110. But the truth behind that one is that the coffee was much hotter than one would expect

In this case, hot oil was involved. Who doesn't expect oil hot enough to fry food properly to be actually very hot?

[Kelvin Mace]

59. You deliberately disobeyed God and were punished

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:6

[Nye Bevan]

64. And sticketh not thy face into sizzling hot fajitas (nt)

[Blue Owl]

60. Clearly fajitas are the devil's work

[awoke_in_2003]

65. Only the shrimp fajitas. nt

[krispos42]

76. *snicker* n/t

[lies and propaganda]

68. I was just burned by a tray of hot sake at a Teppan establishment recently, glad I wasnt praying.

I didn't sue, but I am definitely getting a nice settlement for what happened to me.

[romanic]

69. Guess God didn't give him common sense

I mean a sizzling plate of fajitas is sitting in front of you and you don't move it out of the way to pray???

[Jim Lane]

71. The FSM punished him for not ordering the pasta.

Repent, O ye unbelievers! Ye have been given a sign!

[pinboy3niner]

72. WRONG! It waS CTHULHU!

He hath given His sign...

[Jim Lane]

74. Infidel. Cthulhu hath no power in restaurants.

It is only we Pastafarians who know where to seek the divine.

[betsuni]

73. Saying grease before meals can be dangerous.

[Inkfreak]

104. lol, I laughed...

[yuiyoshida]

77. Imagine if there were super hot chili peppers in it as well

The aroma would have burned out his nostril hairs for a week.

Love hot n' spicy foods... Vietnamese and Cambodian dishes... Szechuan Chinese dishes.. Korean spicy Kimchee! Thai curries in coconut Milk... Yum!

By the way, I love Mexican food here in NorCal, its yummy also!

[RKP5637]

80. Clearly, "The plate from hell!"

[hatrack]

87. It was God's way of saying "Hey!! Dumbass!! PAY ATTENTION!!!"

.

[BlueStreak]

101. "... and Lord, protect us from delicious plates of sizzling vegetables, in Jesus name ..."

[truebrit71]

103. Fucking idiot.

...