Legal Options

[2002civic]

On Friday a friend of mine had an issue with a restaurant and was wondering what, if any, legal options he would have....

Basically we went out for dinner with some friends. He is deathly allergic to any kind of nut, and the server was informed of this. She even asked when the entrees came out if sesame seeds were ok. We then ordered dessert, which made no mention of any nuts in the description and the server never mentioned anything. He then felt a tingling on his tongue, lips and his throat got sore. We asked the server if there was any kind of nut in the dessert and she said none what so ever. He then went home, took some bendryl and then got worse. So bad that he was raced to the ER with his throat about 80% closed. Upon arrival at the ER, he was immediately shown to a room where 2-3 doctors and 3 nurses proceeded to look after him as he was BRIGHT BRIGHT red and having difficulty breathing. He spent about 5 hours in the ER and then went home, having to take meds for the weekend and not feeling well. We later found out that there were in fact cashews in the dessert.

Now, is it worth his while to sue the restaurant or will he not get very much out of it?

[Euro_Trash]

IMO, I would go again and double check the menu and the signs for any warnings, and if there are none ask the restaurant what they will do to compensate you

[badatusrnames]

At the very least let the restaurant know what happened, if this occurs again the outcomes could be much worse.

A Doctor that my mom worked with almost died after he was served a product with sesame oil in it despite receiving assurances from the restaurant that their food was sesame free.

I believe he sued the restaurant and won - more out of principle than for the money.

[2002civic]

Well his sister actually works for penny Lane and is friends with the managers of the restaurant (a penny lane restaurant), they did not offer any compensation, or appology to the individual

[badatusrnames]

Call the Health Region and inform them then? This restaurant needs to know that this dessert shouldn't be served to people if they don't have a correct list of ingredients, as this situation could very likely be fatal.

If the Health Region leans on them and threatens to fine them/shut them down, that might make them wake up.

A lawsuit would be a long, dragged out affair that probably wouldn't be worth it in the end - this isn't America. The restaurant might be willing to settle if you get a lawyer to contact them about it though. More out of principle than money, restaurants need to know that they can't be casual about serving food to people with allergies if they aren't certain about the ingredients, unless they want a fatality on their hands.