Friday, January 28, 2011
Nearly three years after his culinary encounter with the “dangerous substance,” Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has sued a congressional cafeteria for slipping an olive pit into the politician’s sandwich wrap. The offending morsel allegedly caused “permanent dental and oral injuries,” according to Kucinich’s lawsuit, after he bit unsuspectingly into his food on April 17, 2008.
“Said sandwich wrap was unwholesome and unfit for human consumption,” proclaims the lawsuit, which calls for the restaurant to pay Kucinich $150,000 to cover future dental and medical expenses and to compensate him for “pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment.”
Kucinich is suing Restaurant Associates, the company that operates the Longworth Cafeteria at the House of Representatives Office Building; Compass Group, the parent corporation of Restaurant Associates; and Performance Food Group and Foodbuy LLC, which are accused of supplying the defective olive.
Bizarre as Kucinich’s contention may seem, Matthew Heller of On Point notes that there is legal precedent for processed olive suppliers to be held liable for leaving pits in olives that a consumer may reasonably assume to be pitted.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Rep. Kucinich's Olive Injury Suit May Not Be Legal Pits (by Matthew heller, On Point News)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich Sues Cafeteria Over Olive Pit in Sandwich (by Sabrina Eaton, Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Dennis Kucinich v. Restaurant Associates (Superior Court, District of Columbia) (pdf)
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