An Iowa man’s knee was shattered after carelessly discarded peanut shells caused him to slip onto the floor of a national steakhouse chain’s Cedar Falls restaurant, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday.
Tama County resident Curtis Jensen slipped and fell in February 2015 on “peanuts and/or peanut shell debris” scattered on the floor of the Texas Roadhouse on University Avenue, according to the lawsuit. The national chain with more than 400 locations is known for serving diners free buckets of dry roasted peanuts and allowing cracked-open shells to be thrown on the floor, Jensen’s attorneys claim.
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The negligence and premises liability lawsuit claims that the tossed peanut debris, a “marketing gimmick,” created “extremely dangerous” conditions inside the restaurant. The situation is made worse by Texas Roadhouse’s wait staff, who often toss the shells onto the floor themselves if customers let them pile up on tables, Waterloo attorneys Thomas Frerichs and Luke Guthrie wrote in the complaint.
“By intentionally maintaining their restaurants in a manner whereby peanut shells and debris are routinely discarded and left on the floor by employees, defendants encourage customers to engage in the same practice, thereby creating a unique, but extremely dangerous condition,” the lawsuit said.
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The lawsuit also claims that the flooring inside the Cedar Falls restaurant where Jensen fell was part of the problem, because it repels the natural oils inside the salty remains instead of absorbing them.
A Des Moines attorney representing the restaurant, listed in the complaint as Texas Roadhouse Holdings L.L.C., did not immediately return a reporter’s phone call. A director of public relations at the Texas Roadhouse corporate headquarters in Louisville, Ky. was also not immediately available for comment.
But Jensen’s case is hardly the steakhouse chain’s first peanut slip-and-fall rodeo.
In 2008, a woman received $43,000 after she slipped on peanuts and fractured her kneecap at a Texas Roadhouse in Temple, Texas. The case was tried in front of a jury by well-known Texas personal injury attorney Vic Feazell. Lawyers for the steakhouse argued the peanut waste was “open and obvious” and that the woman should have been aware of her surroundings, according to a Texas Lawyer blog.
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A lawsuit filed in 2013 on behalf of another Texas woman, Amelia Tijerina, sought more than $1 million in damages after she slipped on peanuts at a restaurant in Harlingen, Texas. Lawyers representing Tijerina reached a confidential settlement last year with Texas Roadhouse Holdings that allowed the restaurant to neither admit nor deny liability for her injuries, court records show.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Jensen claims the fall fractured his kneecap in four places, and asks for monetary damages for physical impairment, medical expenses and loss of earning capacity. The lawsuit also asks for punitive damages, arguing that Texas Roadhouse should know the peanut husks are a slipping hazard.
“Defendant deliberately chose not to reduce or eliminate the risk of slipping and falling posed by the peanut shells and debris on the floor, choosing instead to maximize profits by perpetuating a marketing gimmick of encouraging the accumulation of peanut shells and debris on the floor,” the lawsuit reads.
Frerichs declined to speak with a reporter on Monday because of the pending nature of the case. The lawsuit was originally filed in Black Hawk County District Court, but was removed to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa by attorneys representing the restaurant.
Source: https://t-tees.com
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