Yesterday, we reported that Rodney Hawkins, who was allergic to shellfish, died after eating an entree containing crab meat which was mistakenly brought to him at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Lovejoy, GA.. According to AJC, Ruby Tuesday denies any wrongdoing and says that the man actually ordered the chicken and crab meat dish called the “Chicken Oscar” which triggered the fatal allergic reaction. Rodney’s widow, Linda Hawkins, disagrees. Details, inside…
The article says,
[Linda Hawkins] hopes that Ruby Tuesday accepts responsibility and does whatever is necessary to see that this doesn’t happen again,” said Chicago attorney Joseph Leonardi, speaking on behalf of the Hawkins family.
Hawkins, 35, collapsed and went into anaphylactic shock Thursday night soon after consuming the shellfish at the Ruby Tuesday on Tara Boulevard, according to an autopsy conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The welder and aspiring rapper was rushed to Southern Regional Medical Center and pronounced dead a half hour later.
Investigators have suggested a mix-up in the dinner order, but won’t file any criminal charges.
“He had ordered the Chicken Fresco and the Chicken Oscar was brought out by mistake,” said GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) spokesman John Bankhead.
Ruby Tuesday said its own review revealed no such error.
“Our investigation of this incident, which includes interviews with the server and manager on duty and the collection of their written notes of what occurred, clearly indicates that the guest ordered Chicken Oscar, a dish that contains crab meat,” Rick Johnson, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement sent to the AJC on Tuesday.
“The server’s order pad and the ticket to the kitchen also verify the accuracy of the order.”
The two dishes, restaurant officials point out, differ significantly in appearance. Chicken Fresco is topped with a tomato slice and chopped green herbs, while Chicken Oscar has crab meat and asparagus spears.
“She [the server] is very clear that he repeated more than one time that Chicken Oscar was his choice,” said Johnson, whose company has more than 25 metro Atlanta locations. “We don’t believe there was any confusion on her part. Had he been confused . . . when the dish was brought to the table it would be been clearly visible to him that it had crab meat on it.”
Virginia Hawkins said in a phone interview from her Momence, Ill., home that her brother was allergic to shellfish since childhood. She said he moved from Illinois to metro Atlanta to pursue a rap music career.
Are we to believe that this man with an acute shellfish allergy since childhood failed to read the description of the entree or simply ordered the wrong entree by mistake? And that this also slipped by his wife who was with him? Why would Rodney have repeated his order “more than once?” That implies that the order was spoken at least 3 times which seems a bit unusual. Of course, maybe the RT representative meant to say the order was said more than once, not repeated. We’re not saying that Ruby Tuesday’s version is impossible, just improbable. But we don’t like to speculate, we leave that to the commenters.
PREVIOUSLY: Wrong Order Kills Customer At Ruby Tuesday
Wife: Man who died didn’t order crab dish [AJC] (Thanks to Sunny!)
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I’m surprised nobody accused the victim of attempting to get his meal comped… (“watch this, honey, we’re gonna get our meal for free”). Heck, if – as some people are pointing out – even people with shellfish allergies can tolerate a bite now and then maybe he did it on purpose to get a free meal out of it or even in an attempt to start a lawsuit… and it backfired.
oh, one more thing, my dad is allergic to shellfish, and the smell alone turns him off. How did this guy not at least SMELL the crab fumes wafting off of the plate (I mean, it’s not like chicken and pasta has any strong odor). Well, maybe he had a cold, but it’s all a bit fishy to me.
We need a picture of the Chicken Oscar. How big is their Lump Crab?
For some reason, the comment box didn’t appear for me on yesterday’s story. So I’ll say now what I would have then:
I really only see two likely scenarios that could have played out:
1) The guy ordered the Chicken Oscar. Maybe he didn’t notice that there was crab meat, or maybe he thought it was Krab meat, as is *usually* the case these days (it’s cheaper and avoids the liability of situations like this)
2) The guy ordered Chicken Fresco which could have been mistaken by the waitress for Chicken Oscar. The two words are similar enough that they could easily be mistaken in a noisy environment. Whether or not the waitress verified the order is pure speculation by anyone who wasn’t there. Sometimes they check, sometimes they don’t.
In either of those cases, I honestly can’t say that I’d fault the restaurant or the waitress. If, as they say, the crab meat is visible on top, the guy that ordered the dinner should have recognized that. And I suppose there could be a third case where the waitress intentionally botched the order, but this is a situation where I think Hanlon’s razor applies. Unless there is specific evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the waitress intentionally brought him the Oscar instead of Fresco, I wouldn’t call this anything other than a very unfortunate accident.
A lot of blame going around here. I agree this all seems fishy on the victim’s part – how can you not notice crab topping your chicken? If you don’t see it, how can you not notice after one bite? Did they warn the waitress specifically of the allergy – a good move for anyone with a severe allergy to food on a restaurant’s menu, even if you’re not eating that food. If you’re so allergic that even one bite could kill you, why are you eating at a restaurant that serves shellfish? Even shared oil could cause a reaction! Where the hell was the epi-pen?
It’s also a little unconvincing on the restaurant side – obviously just because a waitress wrote something down, that doesn’t mean it’s right. I can see how RT would want to fight this – they’ll lose custom over this, and they might as well fight their corner if they honestly believe it wasn’t their mistake. They’re trying to cover tracks with the above statement – i.e. the food noted as ordered was prepared correctly, so the mistake was at the time the order was made, be it either the waitress or customer who made the mistake.
It’s a horrible accident, but my main feelings go out to the waitress. Nobody expects to turn up at their minimum wage job and end up causing someone’s death. Whether it was a customer trying to stage an accident to claim compensation, or a simple error on the order, we’re all human.
@backbroken:
Again: that statement wasn’t to the family, that statement was a response to the GBI. They made an explicit accusation that RT screwed up the order, RT explicitly refuted it.
The customer should have specifically told the waitstaff AT EVERY RESTAURANT he visited about this deathly shellfish allergy. This would be to ensure the grill/oven/etc. was cleaned completely before his entree was cooked, because presumably even juices or small scraps could kill or injure him.
As far as we know, the customer DID NOT announce the allergy to Ruby Tuesday, and they couldn’t have known how critical it was that he NOT receive shellfish. Therefore the final responsibility sat with the customer to not just eat what was set before him, but to make sure it wasn’t Shellfish.
Mistakes happen in restaurants. Severely allergic people, above all, should be on guard against such mistakes.
What if they had just cooked his chicken entree in the same pan, or on the same surface as someone else’s crab meat? He would have had a severe reaction then as well.
If Ruby Tuesday is found to have brought him an entree he didn’t order, they should certainly pay some compensation for the extreme consequences of a simple error. But the full responsibility does not lie with RT in this case.
Of course the waitress is “sure” She is afraid of being sued.
@apotheosis: I guess my problem is that they just don’t have incontrovertible evidence. They refuted the unsubstantiated claims with their own shaky evidence. It just looks petty, defensive and unsympathetic to me. You can craft a statement that expresses sympathy and doesn’t accept blame. Instead, they’ve smacked the ball back into the Hawkins family’s court and the situation is only going to escalate.
I know I’m allergic to strawberries, and I am always vigilant about it, even if I order dishes without- I’ve been to Panera bread and had them cross contaminate my sandwich, but I catch those types or errors.
Perhaps someone else at the table ordered Oscar and the server placed the plate in front of the wrong person.
Errors happen in busy restaurants all the time.
If the guy has a life-threatening allergy, it is his own responsibility to take all precautions, and triple check his food before he eats it.
The restaurant needs only one jury member who has ever been accidentally served the wrong dish.
Shame on You, Consumerist, for sensationalizing this story. Ruby Tuesday’s story is “improbable?” Have you ever worked at a restaurant? Have you ever dealt with the public in general? People don’t read descriptions, signs, or listen to instructions. I am a pharmacist, and have had [repeatedly] occur where I have said, “Mrs. Jones, your prescription is ready;” only to have Mr. Smith come to the counter and try to claim it. And anyone with a life-long food allergy should be carrying an Epi-Pen, for use in an event such as this. It is very sad that this happened, but we are human and accidents do happen. It is much easier to blame than to accept this fact.
@stre: No, I’d say that that looks very much like shellfish of some stripe (crab, lobster, possibly scallops) topping that chicken. Seriously, that one’s pretty obvious.
1 – I’ve never had a server at a restaurant REPEAT my order to me – more than once, especially. Drive-thru window? Yes. Table and chairs setting? No. Not buying RT’s story on that one. They just don’t do that.
2 – I’m sure that these two dishes might look VERY different on the menu where it’s all pretty and Photoshopped and whatnot. But I’m more likely inclined to believe – especially at a place like Ruby Tuesday’s…not that I have anything against them – that the dish did not come out of the kitchen and onto the man’s table exactly as it would’ve appeared in a photo on the menu. In-restaurant, they’re more likely to slap it on a plate where he MAY NOT have been able to identify crab meat in the dish without doing a small amount of dissecting and inspection.
I DO believe that it was a mistake, but I don’t believe that this man knowingly did this – or that his wife allowed him to. Not buying it.
You know, I was always a picky eater as a kid. Well, even somewhat today, actually. I wish I was armed with this kind of information back when my parents used to tell me something like “C’mon, eat your shrimp. A little seafood never killed anyone.”
Years ago when I waited tables (at the last supper), I would say the name of the entrée as it was placed in front of the customer, so it was clear what the customer was about to eat. Not placing blame, but how many aspiring welders/rappers are such gourmands to know ‘Oscar’ generally refers to meat topped with asparagus and crabmeat? Does RT’s menu offer visual cues ala BigBoy? It’s a shame he didn’t have http://www.studystack.com/studytable-101718
What would Ruby Tuesday be able to do? Require customers to disclose any known food allergies before ordering? Verbally repeat the ingredients of each ordered dish to verify that what the server heard is what the customer thinks it is? (Or maybe it’s a threat: If he sues Ruby Tuesday out of existence, you can bet it’ll never happen again.)
I’m being facetious here, but I honestly can’t think of what they can do other than 1) training their staff about allergies and 2) providing detailed ingredient lists. Both of these would only reduce inevitable customer or server or kitchen errors if the customer vigilantly announces any allergies.
@stre: Looks more like chicken with little pieces of chicken on top.
“I’ll have the chicken garnished with bits of chicken”? I have never heard of such a dish, but I could be wrong.
@harlock_JDS: My bad, I completely misread that. Yeah, that does make it easier to see how he might not have noticed a visible difference.
That does create an interesting problem. I know I’ve occasionally been served the wrong dish when they look very similar. I’m not really sure what you could do to resolve that possible problem. Right now, it seems that standard practice is to have whoever has the food restrictions talk to the restaurant/waiter so that they can make accommodations for their condition.
Ultimately regardless of what he ordered it seems that he should have made the effort to tell the waitress that he had a food allergy and that he could not eat crab. Ideally they should have had an exchange like:
C:”Hi, I’d like the Chicken _____, but I need to make sure it doesn’t have crab/shellfish/etc… because I’m allergic”
W:”Umm… well the Chicken Oscar comes with crab on it…”
C:”Oh, ummm, I said I wanted the Chicken Fresca…” or “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t read that, then I’ll have…”
etc… it’s fair for the staff to help make sure you don’t get something you’re allergic to if you tell them, but if they don’t have that information then I really don’t see how they could be found negligent and actually liable for his death (regardless of whether or not they brought out the wrong dish).
How can you all be so blind? this man was destined to be a rap great and had to be taken out. conspiracy theories will abound but we all kno the government was behin this , think tupac and notorious big. they clearly switched his food and coached everyone there as to what was said….but seriously bring an epi pen if someting can kill you.
Ohhh – snarky!
It seems like someone with a serious food allergy would tell the waitress about it, to make sure that no seafood accidentally ended up on their plate.
When I was a server, I wrote in such a scribbled hurry that I doubt anyone but me could say for sure what I had written on my order pad.
Servers and customers both make mistakes. Sometimes customers forget what they ordered, but assume that it must be theirs because it came to their table.
I don’t think either party is at fault, but I would take it as a warning to people with food allergies to be very careful at restaurants and to clearly state your allergies to the staff so that you don’t end up getting something deadly.
As someone with Celiac Disease, I am terrified of restaurants. I have to explain to every waitress that I am unable to eat anything with gluten in it. Then I get to explain what that is. Then I sometimes get directed to go explain what that is the the cooks. Then I get handed packages to read ingredients to make sure wheat, barley, and rye are not in it.
I can’t imagine someone with that kind of allergy not mentioning it. Mine won’t kill me instantly, just hurt a lot, and I go through the motions ever single time I eat out. (I do tip well to compensate for the extra hassle because I know how irritating things like that can be.)
For me, I really only eat at sushi places anymore because it’s hard to get gluten on rice and fish.
@FrenchBenj: Nobody is deathly allergic to cats. Also, for some reason they don’t let you pet the tigers, so it’s not an issue.
I’ve read this story a few times and at first I blamed Ruby Tuesday’s. I didn’t buy the waitress wrote down the order, blah, blah, blah. The more I read and think about this though I’m thinking that the blame goes on the customer. The picture in the menu for the Chicken Fresco shows tomatoes on top and the item he got had none. That should have been the 1st clue he got the wrong thing (if he did indeed order that). Also the smell of the dish would have been different and like everyone else has said he would smell the shellfish before eating it. My feeling is that he may have done this on purpose looking for some type of payday from RT’s and gone on with his life. Unfortunately the scam he tried to run on the restaurant killed him!
Back when I saw the first story, I’d figured that if Ruby Tuesday’s management was smart, they’d approach his family with an open wallet and open arms. Guess they’re, uhm, not.
@Michael Belisle: Possibly disclose on the menu if a dish contains relatively common fatal allergens, such as nuts or shellfish. A little icon, mayhaps?
@Git Em SteveDave has a new Lego set wrote, sarcastically:
Maybe because Ruby Tuesday already has several?
I’ll add a vote to the side that says: I have ordered the Chicken Oscar before, because I happen to love crab meat, but I can definitely see how someone who was not familiar with crab meat would not be able to tell that it was in the dish. And the cream sauce, as far as I remember, is the overriding aroma of the dish… crab really doesn’t smell that strong or as ‘fishy’ as many other shellfish or fish dishes. Also, in the few times I have gotten it, it has ranged from ‘Giant obvious lump of crab’ to ‘miniscule shards of crab that look kind of like the lumps in bleu cheese dressing.’
So I think that it is quite likely that the customer wasn’t being stupid or reckless, personally.
@drjayphd: Warnings are good when it’s not obvious (or required by law). But
seems redundant.
I’d say that maybe a note requesting that the customer inform their server of any allergies would be in order, but then again a customer with allergies shouldn’t need a reminder to take basic precautions to save own their life.
@dangermike: Comments got closed. Ben’s comment at the end, about the wild speculation of how much crab was on there, what was going through Rodney’s head at the time, etc. explained why he shut it down.
@mariospants: That’s because you didn’t have 1:17 PM in the pool. Also, you missed David M‘s comment.
@punkrawka: Which was pretty much my theory: the waitress just hears the wrong dish and made a tragic mistake. Occam’s Razor much, people?
@linus: …and yet, there’s still a goodly chunk of victim-blaming going around. Funny, although I can only imagine the blasting this guy would’ve gotten before the new code.
@veverkap: Bubba Sparxxx, obviou–wait, what?
@The Count of Monte Fisto: I think you mean “you’re supposed to blame the big corporation unless there’s a spectacularly contrived way to pin it on the customer, or the corporation’s on our naughty list, in which case, YOU HAD IT COMING. At least that’s before, for this is The New Consumerist (which is, oddly enough, nothing like The New No Limit Records, alas…).
@donkeyjote: I’m exactly like you. My allergies to shrimp (no other shellfish, just shrimp) started when I was in my teens, but I can’t stay away from the stuff. I usually break out in minor hives on my face, so it’s usually not a big deal and I still eat it.
But about a month ago, I didn’t think much about it and ate at Red Lobster ordering the shrimp & lobster plate. I had a serious, severe allergic reaction 3 hours later. My entire body was covered in tons of hives, my face, lips and tongue were all swollen. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life, and I nearly went to the emergency room but calmed down and stopped myself since my throat wasn’t closing off or anything.
I imagine this guy went through the same situation, except his allergic reaction was way faster reacting than mine was, and now everyone is just covering their asses. It’s really a sad thing all around.
You people need to actually look this dish. It is not at ALL obvious that it contains crab meat.
I’ve worked in restaurants before and though a little OT, I think it’s relevant.
If you have a very serious/life threatening allergy, call the restaurant before you go. Get the name of the person you’re talking to, or a person that will be there when you go, and be very clear with your waitress/the manager that this could cause DEATH. It’s very helpful for the restaurant to be able to prepare ahead of time.
Seems like people are more willing to entertaining the idea that the waitress mistakenly wrote down the wrong order instead of the customer saying the wrong thing? Having been a waiter in high school and college, there were plenty of times the customer ordered, I read back the order, and the customer confirmed. I would bring out the food, and no one complained. A few minutes later, after taking a few bites, the customer would get my attention to inform me what I brought was not what he ordered. I would usually rattle off the order and get my pad out to confirm. The customer would argue “that is not what I said” so I would agree to change it. Almost every time as I was walking back to the kitchen I would hear someone else at the table tell the arguing customer they did say what I had brought. I am not saying I didn’t make mistakes, but I was familiar with the menu, where a customer who scanned it once was more likely to say one item when they meant another.
@drjayphd
i agree it was a tragic mistake. I just don’t see the ‘wrong’ from RT here unless we think that every restaurant should treat every dish being made as if it’s for someone with a life treating allergy.
I think it’s more practice for the minority with such a condition to take at least basic steps to warn people and protect themselves (like informing restaurants of said problem) rather than to treat everyone as if they had this issue.
I’d have no problem putting full blame on the restaurant if they had been informed of the problem but apparently the family didn’t even bother doing that and thus have to take a good chunk of the responsibility.
@backbroken: How about … “We will continue to examine the circumtances of this tragedy in an effort to determine if any changes need to be made to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We will share these findings with other retail food establishments.”
I am not a PR person, but your statement implies to me that Ruby Tuesday does not dispute the chain of events and borders on acknowledging fault (since they’re reexamining their practices). That’s fine, unless they do dispute them.
I think “We are examining the circumstances of this tragedy and have no comment at this time,” would at least allow the story to fade from the public eye before they start the pissing contest.
@drjayphd: I’d figured that if Ruby Tuesday’s management was smart, they’d approach his family with an open wallet and open arms. Guess they’re, uhm, not.
Why pay if you don’t think you’re responsible? And how much is a man’s life worth these days? There’s no Warsaw Convention for death by food allergy in a restaurant. It could be very expensive.
I’m putting this one squarely on the deceased.
———————————
From Ruby Tuesday’s Website:
Chicken Oscar
Tender jumbo lump crab meat with asparagus tips and lemon-butter sauce atop a fresh grilled chicken breast. Served with fresh, steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.
———————————
i have eaten this dish, it’s EXACTLY as it’s described. it’s a big ass lump of crab meat on top of a piece of chicken. smell nothing, you can SEE the crab meat, and it’s blatantly obvious that it’s not chicken, as illustrated right below the crab meat your eating.
there are pictures of the dish he allegedly ordered, and it’s considerably different, being topped with tomatoes and sauce, nothing even resembling a chunk of crab meat.
after working in customer service as long as i have, this comes as no surprise. hell, I’m surprised some of the people i talk to are competent enough to FEED THEMSELVES.
@stre: That’s a great example of how visually someone might mistake the crab for chicken on chicken, but fresco has tomatoes on it.
The picture of Chicken Fresco is right on this page: [www.rubytuesday.com] Fresco has tomatoes, Oscar has crab. I don’t see how you don’t notice the missing tomatoes unless, because of the salmonella outbreak freakout, they chose not to serve tomatoes at that restaurant that day/week. Missing information.
I still think something big is missing from this story because I don’t get how you mistake crab’s odor and texture for chicken. We don’t know how much he ate, why he didn’t notice, and why the mistake was made in the first place. Either way, I’m convinced that there’s a lot missing from this story and RT is just trying to cover their ass.
I can see the phrase “chicken oscar” being said 3 times.
Customer: I’d like the chicken oscar
Waitress: one chicken oscar
later…
Waitress: here’s your chicken oscar.
That’s pretty much how it works at every restaurant I’ve been to.
@civis: I’m appalled that you blame the victim. You clearly do not know what it is like to live with a food allergy. I am allergic to shellfish. And yes, I’m generally careful when I go to restaurants. The articles do not have enough information to place the blame on anyone yet. Did he order the wrong dish? Did the waitress write down the wrong dish? Did he say he was allergic? Did he know he was deathly allergic? Or did the previously only have mild reactions? None of that is known.
I have avoided seafood all my life. Unfortunately, that also means I’m not always the best equipped to determine that there’s seafood in something just by looking at it. People sneak seafood in to the most innocent looking things: fried prawns that look like chicken wings, shrimp bits in bread (what’s this pink stuff in the bread??), “vegetarian” egg rolls that’s sealed with crab paste (wtf? how is that vegetarian??), hot sandwich with cheese and translucent “crab strips” that look like cooked onions.
I looked at the pictures of the two entrees, and they look practically the same to me. Yeah, one has tomatoes on it. The tomatoes could’ve gotten left off for all he knew…or they weren’t significant to him. The “crab meat” looks like potatoes to me.
And they probably would’ve slid off the chicken during transit.
So, you’re left with two dishes of chicken with white sauce on top that look identical. I could totally see how he could dive into the chicken without knowing it is covered in death.
It’s an accident. It’s a terrible, tragic accident, in which the server, at worst, did something that is absolutely unavoidable no matter how careful you are, which is to occasionally mishear or misunderstand someone. The customer, at worst, wasn’t as careful as he could have been about disclosing his allergy — although he may not have known the severity of it at all, meaning he had no reason to disclose it.
People aren’t perfect; this is, I think, legitimately an accident based on an incredibly unfortunate collision of events. What RT has produced is literally all the evidence they could possibly produce if what they were saying were entirely true — yes, they could be doctoring the evidence and everyone could be lying, but this is all they’d have to defend themselves if they weren’t lying, and you simply can’t know. It seems improbable that the guy would order something with crabmeat, but it also seems improbable that he would eat it when it arrived.
Something happened, one way or the other, that’s improbable. It’s not necessary for either the victim or the restaurant to be blamed; it’s a tragedy, plain and simple, and not every tragedy requires someone to be deserving of condemnation.
On a lighter note, the idea that it would be logical to conclude that what you had been served was “chicken topped with small pieces of chicken” made me laugh out loud.
@mmstk101: I’m wondering if he didn’t understand that allergic reactions can become progressively more severe with each exposure to the allergen. But you’d think one of his doctors would have suggested he carry an Epi-Pen after all these years. Who knows. But it sounds as though this guy may not have understood that a bothersome allergy yesterday could become a deadly one today…
Please! Everyday orders takers screw up constantly and this one just happened to be fatal.
How many times have each of us argued with waitstaff over what we ordered or did not order.
I have diabetes and have gotten sugar soda on more than one occasion and I always make the server repeat “Diet Coke”.
Total BS, they just don’t want to pay out. Actually I am not sure they should pay out, it seems like the server was the one to screw up. Wouldn’t that be involuntary manslaughter?
I hate shellfish. Ugh, blech, tastes like ugh, I don’t even want to think up a metaphor. No one has ever slipped shellfish passed me, ever, in ANYTHING in ANY amount. I can’t count the number of times I took some dip on a cracker and even before biting down I’ve spit it out telling my wife “Icky food!” She says she can’t taste it so we go to the person that made it and ask if there’s seafood in the dip and I’ll get answers like “Only a few processed shrimp, or only a teaspoon of CLAM juice,” followed by “You can taste it?”
Ugh, ugh ugh. But my point is, I’m not even allergic, I just find it repulsive.
Fresco…Oscar…loud restaurant? Sounds to me like the waitress heard one instead of the other. They can sound the same when spoken in a loud environment.
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Wait, my finely tuned senses tell me there is someone wrong on the internets! ;P
It is not suspicious for the wait staff to repeat an order three or more times. It never happened to you because you treat the wait staff as a human being. Anyone who has ever waited tables knows about “that guy.” That guy who does not acknowledge you, that guy who does not make eye contact, that guy who does not even look you in the face as they order. This requires, no this demands you have to repeat the order several times to make sure you heard them correctly. I’ve had customers who not only refuse to look at me, but don’t even look at the food as they start to eat. They’re usually focused on the line of bullsh*t they’re using to impress their date. There have been times I swear I could have slipped them a urnial cake on a plate without them knowing it.
Was this customer a “that guy” I can’t say, but it sure would explain alot. Anyway, leave the wait person out of this. “Something” happened and a man’s dead. The server is not going to be able to forget that for the rest of their life.
If I’m recalling correctly, involuntary manslaughter requires either recklessness (which requires that you ignore a risk on purpose, and isn’t even close to satisfied here) or criminal negligence, which basically requires that they prove that you didn’t exercise reasonable care. Making a mistake does not prove that you didn’t exercise reasonable care; you can exercise reasonable care and still make a mistake. I haven’t seen anything here that would even come close to supporting criminal charges against anybody. A person behaving reasonably can still make a mistake, which is why not every mistake is a crime, even if it has terrible consequences.
Errors can and will exist at every level.
Customer gets confused. Keeps repeating “Don’t order A, instead order B” and then orders A after all.
Waitress confusion, at the time of the order or at the time the order is entered. And how many times have we seen a waitress REFUSE to write down your order.
Kitchen confusion.
Delivery confusion (serving wrong meal to customer).
And then there is responsibility. Was the waitress informed? Really informed? Was the customer extra viligant against possible errors?
There is so much blame and potential for error on both sides of the issue that I do not want to serve on the jury when this thing goes to trail. And we know this one will be going to trial.
@james:
Same here.
I tell the wait staff “Diet”. I never mention the word “Coke” anymore. Just too many screw ups when I mention both words.