050405 Bill Would Ban Suing Restaurants Over Obesity

Harrisburg, PA - If you get fat because you're always pigging out at a local restaurant or fast-food chain, don't blame the restaurant, some state legislators say.

A consumer shouldn't say "that a Big Mac caused me to become a big Mac," quipped state Rep. Katharine Watson, R-Bucks.

She sits on the state House's State Government Committee, which yesterday discussed a bill that would protect farmers, food sellers, processors, distributors, packers, restaurants and even food advertisers from civil lawsuits that arise "out of weight gain, obesity [or] a health condition associated with weight gain or obesity."

The bill doesn't specifically list what health conditions might be barred from lawsuits, but diabetes was mentioned as a likely one.

About 17 other states have enacted measures protecting restaurants and other food purveyors from such civil liability lawsuits, said the prime sponsor of House Bill 670, Rep. Douglas Reichley, R-Lehigh. There are 30 co-sponsors.

Reichley said food consumers and restaurant customers needed to become more responsible for their own behavior, and to stop eating so much and to begin exercising more if they want to avoid becoming overweight or obese.

He said it wouldn't be fair if, after eating McDonald's or Burger King or Wendy's hamburgers and french fries for 10 years, a tubby customer decided that the restaurant chain was to blame for the extra pounds he was packing and sued for compensation.

Reichley said there's been "a spate of lawsuits" or threats of litigation in recent months "by individuals trying to blame the cause of their obesity on restaurants or food processors. Lawsuits attacking the food industry aren't the answer to the nation's weight problem."

He said that in many cases of people being overweight, there were other important factors, such as "genetics, discretionary behavior, and a lack of dieting and physical activity."

Helping to publicize weight issues was a 2004 documentary film called "Super Size Me," by West Virginia-born filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. It detailed how he gained 24 pounds after eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days and not exercising.

Paul Zukovich, president of the Pennsylvania Food Processors Association, and Patrick Conway, president of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, support Reichley's bill.

"There is a real danger of an uncontrollable avalanche of lawsuits against restaurants and other food purveyors," Zukovich said.

The Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association says the bill is a bad idea. The group's legislative counsel, Mark Phenicie, said there hadn't even been any such lawsuits in Pennsylvania.

"This issue [of lawsuits against restaurants] has been overblown by those testifying here today," he said.

The bill goes much further than necessary, he said, calling it "an answer in search of a problem."

He said complaints by customers against a restaurant or food processor/distributor would better be handled on a case-by-case basis rather than by enacting a sweeping new law that prevents aggrieved people from suing. He said most of the push for such a bill comes from a lawsuit against McDonald's in New York state, which was eventually dismissed.

He said many businesses or industries go to the Legislature seeking "boutique" type legislation to protect them from aggrieved customers, but that the Legislature should resist such specialized bills.

Conway said the publicity about the McDonald's lawsuit, as well as fears of future such lawsuits, had caused restaurants' insurance premiums to rise, which in turn causes consumer prices to rise.

He argued the bill was narrow in focus and wouldn't prevent lawsuits over "product liability" issues or poor food-handling practices.

He said Reichley's bill wouldn't have prevented lawsuits in the much-publicized case of 660 people who got sick in 2003 after eating at a Beaver County Chi-Chi's restaurant, where problems were linked to tainted green onions from Mexico.

Phenicie said such anti-lawsuit measures often start out in a narrow interpretation but expand in impact over the years through rulings by judges.

Reichley's measure does contain one exception that would permit civil lawsuits in personal obesity cases. If a food grower/packer/seller had "willingly and knowingly" mishandled or mislabeled a food product, such as by an illegal "adulteration or misbranding," a consumer could sue and claim the food had caused him to be obese.

What will happen with Reichley's bill, if it stays in its present form, isn't certain yet. The State Government Committee suggested the trial lawyers group talk to Reichley about working out a possible compromise.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com