Featuring in this community! Because... Onions!
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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Oh no! NOT THE ONIONS!
The guy ate the onion..
I always side with the underdogs, food allergens need to be respected.
On the one hand, I hate onions. So I totally get it. I wish I could sue every time someone sticks one in my food as a disgusting surprise too.
On the other hand, if you have a food allergy, that is different than just requesting "no onion" on your burger. They have to take steps to prevent cross contamination. It is a whole thing, and he should know that if he is really that allergic. He would be having this issue all the time becuase (as I well know and lament as an onion hater) onions are in a ton of foods everywhere you go.
They would only be negligent and liable if he told them that he was allergic and they claimed to have taken precautions to prevent exposure of his food. If he just asked for no onions and had an allergic reaction because they messed up his order like every fast food restaurant in the world does sometimes, that is not gross negligence, that is a standard accident.
Onions are easy to remove, it is that damn mayonnaise that ruins everything that should never be the default. If some confused person actually wants that garbage on anything they should be handed a packet to add it themselves.
Unfortunately that is not how food allergies work.
My best friend has a serious allergic reaction to onions. It's no joke. He ended up in the ER for 3 days after eating something with only a hint of onions.
To his credit though, he checks his burgers to see if they contain something that could kill him before eating them.
If you have a allergy to onions wouldn't you check a burger before eating it? I mean, who blindly trusts fast food workers that much?
People with an EpiPen and a need for $1m
Back in June 2024, Wilson also sued Sonic for including onions on a burger.
Honestly.... It's not even the sketchiest business model out there.
Really should put him being allergic in the title there.
I once had a friend who claimed to be allergic to onions and his flatmates managed to prove it was a lie..... By trying to kill him.
This is a surprisingly common thing that people with food allergies deal with. My partner is allergic to bananas, (they’re closely related to latex, which is an extremely common allergy) and has had anaphylaxis triggered multiple times from people trying to test it. People just randomly hide bananas in gifted food, to see if they’re really allergic. It has happened so many times that my partner actively refuses to eat baked goods unless they saw it get made.
The worst part is that the allergy runs in my partner’s family. So it’s not like they’re the only one who is allergic.
I’m convinced it’s due to projection. The people prone to lying are likely the ones who feel the need to test it, because they assume that everyone else lies a lot too.
You misunderstand. They were genuinely attempting to murder him. He was a kleptomaniac, compulsive liar, antisocial personality disorder. Just a very unpleasant influence in their lives. I think the final straw was when he stole one of their bank cards and emptied their account.
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When i read the title i knew it was gonna be an allergy thing and yup i was right. Maybe not 1mil but allergies are serious.
Yeah, this story hit me kinda like the McDonald's hot coffee incident; it seemed silly and frivolous on the surface until you realize just how much danger the person could've actually been in.
Though I'm loving the comments in this thread. The arguments over corporate responsibility vs personal responsibility are pretty interesting!
I think if a restauraunt says theyre willing to serve someone with serious alergies they should be suable when they fuck up. But I also know that fast food places mess up orders more often than not, and this guy has sued another fast food place for this, so he knows its dangerous to eat at fast food places but does it anyway presuambly because the benefits outway the consequences...
Fast food places just need a sign that says if "you have a serious alergy, dont eat here" or something a little more nuanced
Given that he is allergic, it's a reasonable thing to do, isn't it? Or is the health and safety of people with allergies not relevant?
On the one hand, I agree with you.
On the other hand, if you're deathly allergic to something as common as onions, you probably shouldn't rely on fast food workers to keep you alive.
I've got a friend with actual Celiac's disease. To the point where a drop of wheat could be the end of him. He does not take this kind of chance, ever. He trusts me to cook for him, but I care about his existence beyond just being a customer.
I worked fast food for a while. Sometimes we were so busy and understaffed that things became very hectic very quick. More than once, I forgot the meat on a hamburger order.
I can understand, from the employee perspective, how this could happen. It's very doubtful it was purposeful.
I don't think I've ever seen a McDonalds franchise fully staffed. They don't get enough business to have that many employees, but you can be sure they get enough business that it's too much for the employees they do have on staff when a rush comes.
if you're deathly allergic to something as common as onions, you probably shouldn't rely on fast food workers to keep you alive.
"Probably" is a big deal, though. It's included in food stamps for a reason - many people, for various reasons, can't prepare their own meals.
I'm not aware of wheat being (directly) lethal to those with Celiac's.
Maybe not directly, but it does have an impact. According to this, it's got to do with accidental gluten ingestion and a lack of intestinal healing.
https://celiac.org/study-shows-slightly-increased-mortality-in-celiac-disease/
From the end of the article, emphasis mine:
"The great majority of people with celiac disease live long, healthy lives. And yet, the fact that we’re still seeing the signal, even in the most modern era, says that despite the improvement of awareness, increased diagnosis rates and easier access to gluten-free options, there is still a measurable impact on the ultimate outcome, which is mortality in people with celiac disease."
Maybe there's a co-morbidity thing going on, but either way my point is he knows there's a real problem because he's been hospitalized as a result of eating wheat, so he takes no more chances.
No reason to take chances when the uh, post-ingestion symptoms are so severe. Not exactly gambling on long term consequences. :p
Yeah I unfortunately have celiac along with many people in my family and have never heard of it causing an immediately life threatening reaction. Pain, embarrassment, mental issues, long term mortality, a whole slew of problems but not "I'm going to immediately die".
I have it as well, thus mentioning my skepticism.
The worst glutening I experienced had some minor hypothermia, but it wasn't enough for a hospitalization, much less lethal.
On the other hand, if you're deathly allergic to something as common as onions, you probably shouldn't rely on fast food workers to keep you alive.
If you're serving food to the public you should probably be careful not to kill them.
It's a nice ideal, but historically the companies don't think like that and in most cases the workers don't get paid enough to be that passionate. 4/5-star restaurants? Sure. Not fast food, though.
Also consider the sheer amount of food orders a fast food place gets in a day, especially with things like DoorDash on top of in-person and drive-thru.
I get where you're coming from. But I still disagree.
What you describe makes sense from a realistic standpoint BUT I don't see why we shouldn't hold corporations to a higher standard since they are selling this exact higher standard to us.
Yes Fastfood workers likely aren't paid enough to care about customized orders but that isn't a ME problem. It's the company's problem since they can't keep up with their promises. So time to hold them responsible.
Also my two cents to add to the general issue: if I can't cater to custom needs or don't want to, I can still lie to the customer and tell them it's not possible instead of risking to kill them through my apathy.
Back in June 2024, Wilson also sued Sonic for including onions on a burger. That fast food company has requested a jury trial for this week.
Reading the article and only applying the information available in it, this is the individual's responsibility.
The article states he asked for a no-onion order, not that he notified the restaurant that he had an allergy and needed the onions removed. Asking for an item to be left off and notifying of an allergy are very different because allergy prep is done very specifically.
Also, they had a similar issue at a different restaurant in 2024 that they sued for. If they can demonstrate negligence, which will be hard, then maybe they have a case but if the customer didn't specify an allergy and didn't check before eating the burger, then the failure is as much theirs.
When I was a child and learning about traffic safety we were taught that pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way over cars but it was stressed that right of way won't stop a car from killing you if you step into traffic.
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And that's why it's fair to sue them. What you're describing is callous indifference to the well-being of others that has caused demonstrative harm.
I think everyone agrees on what the fast food place is thinking. The issue is that that line of reasoning is dangerous and has legal penalties.
Think of it with "hand washing" and "fecal coliform bacteria" instead. "It's too expensive to train our workers to wash their hands after pooping, and most wouldn't anyway because we don't pay them enough to care" just isn't a defense when someone gets sick as a result.
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When I was working in fast food we got a lot of people telling us that they were deathly allergic to onions. If all of their claims were true then every man woman and child in my city of 300,000 would have to be eating their at least once a week. It's a major disruption because if someone claims an allergy you have to do a special mini prep just for that order to avoid cross contamination. After a while we collectively just started treating them like regular no onion orders. I'd be shocked if most places didn't do the same.
I'm betting this is another example of subrogation..
I'd bet that this guy's health insurance refuses to pay out unless they can file suit in his name. The overwhelming majority of these bullshit lawsuits only exist because of scumbag insurers.
Remember that lady who sued her nephew? Her medical insurance refused to pay her medical bills unless they were allowed to sue the nephew's homeowner's insurance in her name.
Never attribute to the named plaintiff what is adequately explained by subrogation.
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Damn, he really ate the onion on that one...
Very fitting title for this sub indeed.
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