PACKET OF MILLET RICE PURPORTEDLY CONTAINED “MANY ROCKS”
After buying a bag of millet rice and storing it in her fridge, J.L. cooked a small amount and cracked her teeth on some "rocks" that were in the mixture.
When she later filed a small claims case, seeking $5000 in damages for her “dental injuries,” the Nassau County District Court ended up dismissing her case.
On appeal, the Appellate Term, Second Department, reiterated that its standard of review of small claims cases boiled down to whether “substantial justice has … been done between the parties according to the rules and principles of substantive law.”
In this instance, the AT2 noted that the defendant argued that it was not the manufacturer of the product and that J.L. failed to establish “causation” – that the defendant was somehow responsible for the injury by way of its acts or failure to act, and that the injuries were the foreseeable result of defendant’s misconduct.
Given that backdrop, the AT2 ended up affirming the dismissal.
Did that plaintiff’s case have no teeth?
# # #
DECISION