America has become an overly litigious society in the last 30 years. Hot coffee, ambulance chasing, unscrupulous lawyers, and frivolous class action suits continue to shake down insurance companies, gum up the legal system, and line the pockets of shady attorneys to the detriment of consumers and businesses. While there are still many reputable, important lawyers who focus on things like family, estate, and criminal law, the personal injury segment has given the profession a shady name.
The most recent frivolous lawsuit to garner national attention and eye-rolls everywhere comes from Florida, where one consumer is unhappy with her Reese’s Peanut Butter holiday products. A Hillsborough County woman is suing Hershey, claiming she was deceived by the company’s packaging of its holiday-themed chocolate and peanut butter treats.
Cynthia Kelly stated she was filing on “behalf of herself and all other similarly situated individuals who purchased a Reese’s Peanut Butter product based on false and deceptive advertising.” The lawsuit itself went on to state, “Hershey’s labels for the Products are materially misleading, and numerous consumers have been tricked and misled by the pictures on the Products’ packaging.”
The products in question feature cute, cartoon-like faces on the packaging but lack the same distinct features as the actual product. While most folks either don’t notice or don’t care, for Cynthia Kelly, it was an offense that she couldn’t overlook. The suit continues: “Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins, Reese’s White Pumpkins, Reese’s Pieces Pumpkins, Reese’s Peanut Butter Ghost, Reese’s White Ghost, Reese’s Peanut Butter Bats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Footballs, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Shapes Assortment Snowmen Stockings Bells.”
It is unclear why Kelly didn’t enjoy the candy as much without the cartoonish smile on the pumpkin, but regardless, she is angry and is seeking financial remuneration for the alleged false advertising. Kelly maintains Hershey is “falsely representing several Reese’s Peanut Butter products as containing explicit carved out artistic designs when there are no such carvings in the actual products.” The suit specifically calls out the Peanut Butter Pumpkins for having the carved-out face on the wrapper but not on the product.
The Peanut Butter Footballs failed to feature the laces on the candy and apparently too closely resembled the Easter Peanut Butter Eggs for Kelly’s liking. She said the footballs “contains no carving for the laces” and “looks like eggs!!” Kelly purchased the pumpkins for $4.49, but claims she wouldn’t have if she had known the treats didn’t have faces on the wrappers. Despite the quality of the product is the same, her lawsuit maintains, “(Kelly) would not have purchased the Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins product if she knew that it did not have the detailed carvings of the mouth and/or eyes as pictured on the product label.”
Kelly is seeking $5,000,0000, presumably for her pain and suffering at the lack of facial features on her snacks. Neither side was readily willing to talk about the pending litigation. Hershey doesn’t comment on pending litigation, and Kelly’s attorney was likely too embarrassed by the frivolous suit to comment. All jokes aside, it is an absurd complaint and looks like a Hail Mary cash grab engineered by an unscrupulous attorney and a plaintiff just hoping to raid Hershey’s deep pockets. Whatever the case, it’s another example of an industry that needs to scale down on frivolous litigation and is embarrassing for both sides.
Featured image credit: By Antarctic96 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18385452
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