The Ohio Supreme Court ruled against a man who suffered serious medical issues after choking on a bone while eating boneless chicken wings at a restaurant. Michael Berkheimer sued the restaurant, claiming they were negligent for not warning him that boneless wings could still contain bones. The court determined that the term “boneless wings” refers to a cooking style and does not guarantee the absence of bones, since it is common knowledge that chickens have bones. The majority opinion stated that consumers should not expect boneless wings to actually be free of bones, and likened it to expecting chicken fingers to be made from actual fingers. The dissenting justices disagreed with this reasoning, arguing that consumers reasonably expect boneless chicken to be truly boneless. They believed a jury should have been allowed to decide if the restaurant was negligent in serving Berkheimer a piece of chicken with a bone. In the end, the court sided with the restaurant, supplier, and farm, and dismissed Berkheimer’s lawsuit, with the majority opinion asserting that consumers should be aware that boneless chicken wings may still contain bones.
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