Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Tale of an Attempted Cereal Killing

Kind of pathetic that the suit has hung around for four years but it made me laugh. From USA Today:

A federal judge in California has dismissed a complaint filed by a San Diego woman who had bought "Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries" for four years believing the cereal contained real berries.
Janine Sugawara cried fraud when she learned the "berries" were only colored cereal balls flavored with strawberry concentrate. She sued the manufacturer on behalf of all crunchberry-eating Americans.


Judge Morrison England Jr. drowned the claim with the milk of common sense:


"This Court is not aware of, nor has Plaintiff alleged the existence of, any actual fruit referred to as a "crunchberry." ... A reasonable consumer would not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist. . . . So far as this Court has been made aware, there is no such fruit growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world."
"Plaintiff did not explain why she could not reasonably have figured this out at any point during the four years she alleged she bought Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries in reliance on defendant's fraud."


The judge's rebuke also noted that another federal court had previously rejected a similar suit filed by Sugawara's attorneys claiming Froot Loops did not contain real, um, froot. (read the entire thing here)

9 comments:

beetlebabee said...

THAT is funny. It is amazing what gets into court isn't it?

Euripides said...

Ah! You've got to love the frivolous lawsuit of the week. I used to collect these things until the McDonald's coffee lady incident many years ago. That was the final straw.

eutychus said...

I love the judges dry humor. Gotta love it when the court has a sense of humor and recognizes absurdity when its about.

eutychus said...

Hey, BB- I just noticed you have your pic on your profile now. I feel like I've met you now!
Now I can put a face with the insightful and thoughtful comments!

Otepoti said...

Hey! This chicken! It isn't from Kentucky!

eutychus said...

Otepoti-
Now you may have a legit complaint on that one! lol

alaiyo said...

So this woman is so clueless that for FOUR YEARS she can't tell the difference between a berry and a piece of cereal? And she doesn't read labels? Who doesn't read labels? What else is there to do at the breakfast table but read the cereal box, whose ingredients list no doubt lists way, way at the bottom something like "fruit flavoring" and NOWHERE any mention of actual "fruit." Good grief. Some people have too much time on their hands -- and greed in their hearts.

I love the judge's remarks -- good for him! Thanks for the laugh.

eutychus said...

"What else is there to do at the breakfast table but read the cereal box.."

A timeless truth if ever there was one...lol

Magister Christianus said...

Wait a minute. If crunchberries are not real berries, then is someone going to tell me that Spam is not made from hearty, grain-fed Spaminals?