Dennis Kucinich sues over a sandwich

When I first saw this story about U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) suing over a sandwich, I thought what you probably thought: "This country is lawsuit happy." But I stopped snickering when I read some of the details:

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is suing the operators of a House cafeteria for alleged negligence stemming from a 3-year-old incident involving a sandwich he says left him with significant dental injuries.

Kucinich is seeking $150,000 in damages... A copy of the suit obtained by the Cleveland Plain Dealer documents the April 2008 incident, in which Kucinich purchased a sandwich wrap he says was "represented to contain pitted olives." After consuming it, Kucinich found the olives were not pitted, causing "serious and permanent dental and oral injuries" that required "multiple surgical and dental procedures."

Now, my first question is this: Don't those fat cat politicians have Cadillac dental care? So is Kucinich actually out any dough? If so, how much? $150,000 is a lot of money. (But have you had any extensive dental work done lately, especially those involving "surgical...procedures"?)

I have no idea whether this suit is meritorious, as they say. But if you bought a sandwich that contained olives, would you expect them to be pitted? And if you crunched down on an olive with pits, and cracked a tooth or teeth or a bridge...would you just chalk it up to buyers' remorse? Or would you be a little more peeved than that?

What do you think? Does Kucinich have a point? Or is he taking advantage of the system?

--Rene Lynch
twitter.com/renelynch

Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[Kevin]

I was a supporter of Kucinich until I heard this story. This is the reason that businesses struggle to survive in the United States. Purely frivolous. Dennis Kucinich should be ashamed of himself. I know that everyone in Ohio is.

[suretylink]

Here are a few observations: 1) In a case like this, from a negligence standpoint, generally if you crack your tooth in a restaurant on something that is not expected in food, such as glass or a rodent bone, it's clearly negligence. If it's something naturally occurring in the food, like bone or gristle in a steak sandwich, it's generally not. To me this is close because olives naturally have pits, but are also usually sliced and pitted when used in sandwiches.
2) I cannot believe these damages are simply related to the dental work. I am in the process of having an implant, abutment and crown replace my first molar and expect to pay about $2,000. I know someone who had all of their teeth replaced with implants for $30,000. Plus, as pointed out already, Congressmen have great dental plans, so it is unlikely that out-of-pocket is anywhere in the $150K neighborhood. However, my one tooth implant has been a multi-visit, six month saga and its still not over. Severe dental problems make one take off time, are painful enough to warrant Vicadin prescriptions and local anesthesia. To me, a US Congressman can certainly make a case for $150,000 in damages.
Would love to hear thoughts of others on my two cents.

[Christina]

..How hard was he chomping down on his sandwich to do THAT much damage to his teeth? And even so, 150k is an AWFUL lot of money for alleged repeated dental surgeries he probably didn't even have to pay for.

[Michelle O'Malley Shaffer]

I would expect to be compensated for the dental work at a place of my choosing, plus any time taken to get the work done as well as any time I would need to recuperate. Dental work is expensive and potentially extremely painful. In a city full of legislators and litigators I would have expected all sorts of disclaimers in the cafeteria. To represent the wrap as having pitted olives is just plain DUM(B).

[rejaye]

Aren't olives usually sliced and no pits when they are made in a sandwich? This is truly a baffling case- and yes, @Katherine, I too am curious as to how much of the sandwich he ate after he found the olive pits in question. Will this keep me up at night, ummm...no. This man should find another way to actually help people, and not cause such a stink about his own precious dental work. Sheesh.

[California Easy]

It can happen - I bought some pitted Greek olives (from Whole Foods) and discovered a pit.
Dental work is not a laughing matter.

[Lisa]

I would have felt sorry for the man if not for the $150K lawsuit. So part of what he is sueing for is "loss of enjoyment and other damages." Who is to say he didn't have bad teeth to begin with.

I wonder how many jars of pitted olives he will get sent to him after this!.

What a looser this man is!

[Katharine Saavedra]

I cant comment intelligently unless I can get an answer to one question:

How much of that sandwich did he eat after finding the first couple of olive pits?

[commonsensesaysso]

He does have a legitimate beef if they claimed the olives were pitted and they were not, thus causing his injury. Is it a $150,000 injury? Hard to tell. I doubt the dental bills totaled that much. But what if he missed out on speaking engagements? It would be interesting to know the reasoning behind that exact amount.