Fast Food Litigation: Those Who Got Caught
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
From time to time I write about the myth of frivolous lawsuits. Urban legends to the contrary, objective data shows that courts are not being overrun by greedy litigants scamming jackpots out of juries. It’s important to set this record straight, because people with genuine personal injury, such as people stricken with mesothelioma cancer from asbestos exposure, have a right to seek justice in courts.
However, stories about how easy it is to con juries have inspired a few people to try it. Here’s what happens:
Anna Ayala will forever be known as the “chili finger lady.” You may remember her — she claimed she found a cooked finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili and sued the restaurant for damages. However, investigation revealed she had planted the finger.
Ayala has served five years in prison for the prank. And she has finally come clean, so to speak, about what she did.
Ayala and her husband Jaime Plascencia purchased the finger, which had been severed from a hand in a workplace accident, from its original “owner” for $100. To make the scam plausible, Ayala cooked the finger in chili at home, then took it to the local Wendy’s and dropped it into her chili. Then she sued.
Investigators determined that the finger didn’t belong to anyone who worked at the Wendy’s, or to anyone who supplied ingredients to the Wendy’s. Further, the coroner’s office determined that the finger had not been cooked in the same chili in which it was “found.”
In 2005 Ayala and Plascencia were convicted of felony attempted grand larceny. Ayala is now out on parole, although she is barred from entering a Wendy’s. Plascencia is still in prison.
There have been other attempts at “junk food jackpots.” In 1993 a rash of claims erupted about odd objects found in Pepsi cans. The objects included pins, screws, syringes, and a bullet.
But Pepsi was able to prove that at least some of the claims were hoaxes. A supermarket surveillance camera caught one claimant putting objects into a Diet Pepsi can. Further, the FDA was unable to confirm that any of the claimants had been victimized by a contaminated product. No “junk in the Pepsi can” claims went to trial, but a few of the would-be claimants were convicted of making fraudulent tampering claims, which can draw a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
One of the more well-publicized claims involved a mouse allegedly found in a can of Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi. Forensic scientists used electron microscopy and other high-tech gizmos to find, among other things, that the mouse’s teeth did not match the scratches and indentions on the can. The scientists concluded there was no way the mouse was canned with the soft drink.
The moral is that frivolous personal injury suits rarely get to trial, and people who try to scam juries get caught.
— Barbara O’Brien
