If you gain weight from a lifestyle of eating too many cheeseburgers and drinking too many colas at your favorite restaurant, should you be able to sue the establishment if you become obese?
For the past seven years, Rep. Dean Urdahl (R-Grove City) has been advocating that if you are what you eat, then you are responsible for the excess poundage that ensues.
He sponsors
HF264 that would make establishments associated with the production or delivery of a food or nonalcoholic beverage immune from civil liability based on an individual’s weight gain, obesity, or related heath condition resulting from the long-term purchase or consumption of that food or beverage.
Known as the “cheeseburger bill,” it was approved by the House Civil Law Committee Feb. 21, and sent to the House Agriculture and Rural Development Policy and Finance Committee.
“The bill underscores that people are responsible for their own actions, particularly where food is concerned. … Simply put, if you eat too many cheeseburgers and get fat, you can’t sue the food retailer,” Urdahl said.
The closest any of his previous efforts have gotten to becoming law was in 2005, when it passed the Republican-controlled House, only to die in the DFL-controlled Senate.
Urdahl vowed last session that he wouldn’t bring the bill up again until the Republicans gained control of the Senate. “Funny thing happened — I thought that would be forever, but here we are,” he said.
Joel Carlson, who represents the Minnesota Association for Justice, has helped stop the progress of similar bills. “This bill ignores the epidemic of obesity and leaves the impression that lawyers are filing frivolous lawsuits,” he said, adding that weight-gain cases in Minnesota are not allowed. “We believe the law in Minnesota already requires personal responsibility,” he said.
Urdahl’s bill goes to product abuse by the consumer, said Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe).
“What I see is we are protecting manufacturers of a legally made product that meets certain standards from a person who chooses to use it to excess or to a point where it may be damaging to their health, and that’s where the personal responsibility comes in,” he said.
Rep. Tim Mahoney (DFL-St. Paul) called the bill a Republican statement supporting corporate America against consumer America. “Essentially what you are saying is that we should grant a free pass to any food producer in America.”
A companion,
SF160, sponsored by Sen. David Hann (R-Eden Prairie), awaits action by the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.