Court of Public Opinion: Dunkin Donuts Coffee Lawsuit is B.S.

June 6th, 2011. By AbiK

Have you ever gotten food at a QSR and not gotten exactly what you ordered? QSR, for those who don’t give much thought to restaurant classifications, stands for “Quick Serve Restaurant” and includes such fine establishments as McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Starbucks and…Dunkin Donuts, which we’ll get to in a minute.

My guess is that you have. It’s the type of industry that makes process improvement experts giddy with glee—so much opportunity to play hero. After all, the ‘defects per million opportunities’ (DPMO) are seemingly countless.

The reason I bring this up is that, given that tidbit of knowledge or supposition, you go into a QSR—or drive thru one—expecting a less than 100% delivery on your expectations. Not that you can’t be satisfied with what you’ve ordered—it just may not be exactly what you ordered. Lettuce is limp. Ketchup’s missing. You said “French” dressing and got “Ranch”. So it’s like the saying goes, “forewarned is forearmed”.

You do things like checking your takeout bag before leaving the place. Count the number of straws. Repeat the order back to the order taker. Say that it’s the orange-colored dressing, not the white one. You’re on guard. And that’s for you or me—the average Joe without any medical condition that might otherwise have us on super high alert when ordering fast food.

Now, back to Dunkin Donuts. So Danielle Jordan—who by now everyone knows is 47 and lives on Oxford Avenue near Langdon Street in Crescentville in PA (who needs WhitePages.com or Spokeo.com?)—went to Dunkin Donuts and ordered coffee. Somewhere along the way, something apparently went wrong. Very wrong, Danielle claims, as after she drank the coffee, she began to feel dizzy, light-headed and entered into full-blown ‘diabetic shock’ (or, insulin shock) requiring an emergency visit to the hospital.

Fast-forward, Danielle’s filed a lawsuit against Dunkin Donuts in which, according to philly.com, she claims she’s had to increase her diabetes meds (hopefully not Avandia or Actos) and she says she’s “sustained a loss of life’s enjoyment”. All this because she states Dunkin Donuts served her coffee—mistakenly—with sugar and not artificial sweetener. The Sweet Coffee Lawsuit—or the Dunkin Donuts Diabetic Lawsuit—either of which this case will surely be dubbed as in years to come—is a negligence and defective products lawsuit.

(Side note for anyone who’s tracking time here: She ordered the coffee back on June 15, 2009. It’s now June 2011…seems dubiously close to PA’s 2-year statute of limitations for personal injury cases…but I’m not jaded nor insinuating that anyone is being opportunistic…)

I don’t have a tape of Danielle ordering her coffee. So who knows what she specifically said and how it was heard. I also don’t know Danielle’s full medical history, what meds she had taken that day, what her insulin levels were at that given moment, or even whether she has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. On the flip side, I don’t know how much sugar was really put in the coffee. All details that surely play into whether there’s a case here or not. It is, however, truly unfortunate that Danielle Jordan experienced what she did. No question there.

But what I find intriguing, is public response—including my own. The reader comments on the web are not at all in support of Danielle Jordan’s case. They’re overwhelmingly against it—and many are from diabetics themselves. Many in fact question how, if she is truly diabetic and is used to using artificial sweetener, that she a) didn’t elect to put sweetener in her coffee herself (as I do at DD) or b) didn’t realize with her first or second sip that it was sweetened with real sugar, not a sugar substitute.

This comment from the dailymail.com (UK) sums up the tenor here: “What utter nonsense!! I am type 1 diabetic myself and I find this very hard to believe; that drinking half a cup of coffee with a bit of sugar in it would cause such problems for this woman, so soon after drinking it. There’s probably the same amount of sugar in a bowl of fruit. She is on the make here! It certainly wouldn’t have effected her life for so long after the event either, talk about exaggerating for gain. Typical of this compo culture! Also, everyone can tell the difference between sugar and artificial sweetener, they taste very different. If she is so concerned maybe in future she should sweeten her own coffee!”

A number of comments also begin to question exactly how far one can go upon being met with unmet expectations at a QSR or otherwise in order to file a lawsuit. Probably the most humorous was one from a reader who said, “Sarah Palin makes me sick. Can I sue?” You get the point.

We’ll have to keep an eye on this one. My layman’s verdict is that this one’s not going very far. But I’ve been surprised before.

Tags: Coffee lawsuit, Crescentville, Danielle Jordan, Diabetes, Diabetic Shock, Dunkin Donuts, Dunkin Donuts lawsuit, Sweet Coffee

This was posted on Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Defective Products, Food Illness, lawsuits . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.