California Supreme Court Lets Diners Sue Restaurants for Natural Food Hazards, Ending 55-Year Shield
Won by Berg Injury Lawyers.
William Berg argued before the California Supreme Court and won a ruling that let injured diners sue restaurants in negligence for natural food hazards, overturning a 1936 rule that had protected the industry for more than five decades.
What happened
Jack A. Clark ordered a chicken enchilada at Mexicali Rose, an Alameda County restaurant. Hidden inside was a one-inch chicken bone. Clark swallowed it, lodged it in his throat, and required three surgeries to repair the damage.
The obstacle Clark faced was not the injury itself but a legal doctrine that had stood since 1936. Under Mix v. Ingersoll Candy Co., California courts applied the 'foreign-natural test': if a harmful substance was natural to the food served, a restaurant could not be held liable, no matter how careless the kitchen had been. A bone in chicken was, by definition, natural. Under that rule, Clark had no case.
William Berg took the case and brought it to the California Supreme Court, arguing that the foreign-natural test was an arbitrary shield that punished diners for the restaurant's failure to exercise ordinary care. He argued that the correct question was not whether the substance was natural but whether the restaurant had been negligent in allowing it to reach the plate.
On January 23, 1992, the California Supreme Court agreed. Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas, writing for the majority, held that while a plaintiff cannot recover under strict liability or implied warranty for naturally occurring food substances, a patron who is injured may still sue under negligence if the restaurant failed to exercise reasonable care in food preparation. The 55-year-old foreign-natural rule was stripped of its absolute character.
The decision, reported at 1 Cal.4th 617, immediately changed the rules for every restaurant and food retailer in California. It meant that operators could no longer rely on the natural origin of an ingredient as a complete defense. They would have to show their kitchens met a reasonable care standard. Academic commentators, including a peer-reviewed analysis in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review in 1993, identified the ruling as a significant shift in California food-safety liability doctrine.
The case originated in Alameda County, where Berg Injury Lawyers is based, and the attorney of record was William L. Berg.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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