Several state legislatures are scrambling before the close of their sessions to pass bills protecting the $1 trillion food industry from lawsuits claiming obesity-related injuries.
Arizona last week became the sixth state to enact a version of Congress’ “cheeseburger bill,” while 13 other states are trying to pass similar bills before their session deadlines this spring.
So far, 24 states, including Virginia, have introduced bills in the 2004 session that would shield the food industry from personal-injury lawsuits that blame restaurants and food manufacturers for consumer weight gain.
But the bills do not immunize food makers or fast-food chains from suits claiming deceptive advertising or faulty manufacturing.
So consumers could sue a restaurant chain for selling tainted beef, but not because they gained weight from eating too many hamburgers.
Lawsuit-reform advocates urged state lawmakers to step into the obesity debate because efforts to pass a national ban on these lawsuits have stalled in the U.S. Senate.
The House of Representatives passed the “cheeseburger bill” last month by a vote of 276-139. The measure faces a tougher time in the Senate, which recently shot down a bill immunizing the gun industry from suits.
Virginia state Delegate William Janis said he did not want to wait after witnessing obesity lawsuits brought against McDonald’s Corp.
The Republican lawmaker in January introduced his version — dubbed “Little Debbie’s bill,” after the snack cake — because he wanted the state to “avoid a spectacle of frivolous lawsuits that blame the fast-food industry for a person’s weight gain.”
Mr. Janis’ bill passed the House of Delegates in February, but it died in the state Senate for this year’s session. Mr. Janis plans to reintroduce the bill with some modified language next year.
Maryland and the District of Columbia have not introduced bills guarding the food industry from obesity litigation.
But the District has proposed a law requiring nutritional labeling on menus at restaurant chains.
The National Restaurant Association, a D.C. trade group representing 878,000 members, said state legislatures have had more success with the bills because they typically move faster than Congress.
“This issue has generated a lot of press and public opinion in the last year, and that has built quite a momentum that you are seeing in states, particularly in the West,” said the association’s spokesman, Tom Foulkes.
Louisiana enacted its “cheeseburger bill” in 2003, while Washington, Idaho, Utah and South Dakota enacted laws this year. A bill in Georgia is waiting for the governor’s signature.
But not all states are on board with the “cheeseburger bill.”
Wisconsin Gov. James E. Doyle, a Democrat, vetoed the state’s version of the bill last month and other measures have been held up in Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Critics of the bill, like the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, said the ban is unnecessary and would take away legal rights from American families.
“The few [obesity lawsuits] that have been filed have been dismissed in the early stages, proving, once again, that the civil justice system works,” said David Casey Jr., president of the Washington bar for trial lawyers.
But state legislators have learned how litigation can have unintended consequences after suits against Big Tobacco reaped additional taxes on cigarettes and more class-action suits, said Sherman Joyce, president of the Washington-based American Tort Reform Association.
“I think many states don’t want that to happen to the food industry. They don’t want public or private litigation to proceed that essentially puts more taxes on fast food,” Mr. Joyce said.
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