Here's the Newsday article on the subject ...

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Motion to Dismiss McDonald's Suit: Lawyer says child obesity claim is frivolous

By Patricia Hurtado, STAFF WRITER

November 21, 2002

A lawyer for McDonald's charged that a federal class-action lawsuit attempting to hold the fast-food giant liable for the obesity of children should be dismissed, arguing that under the theory, you could even sue mom for cooking fattening foods.

U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet said he would reserve decision on a motion made by McDonald's to dismiss the suit as frivolous. "They are seeking to hold McDonald's and McDonald's alone accountable for the growing problem of youthful obesity," said Brad Lerman, a lawyer for the restaurant chain.

Lerman said McDonald's does not mislead the public about the healthfulness of its food, or, "that eating a hamburger is the same as eating a spinach salad." And, he said the long-term effects of eating fatty, high-sodium foods are well-known.

"The understanding and comprehension of what hamburgers and French fries do has been with us for a long, long time," Lerman argued. "People don't go to sleep thin and wake up the next day suddenly obese. They realize it when their clothes are too tight and their pants don't fit."

But Samuel Hirsh, a lawyer for several city children who said they became obese from eating at McDonald's - including a 15-year-old Bronx boy who said he has been eating almost daily at the chain since he was six - disagreed.

"McDonald's has the information that ... a child consuming this food more than one time a week may result in a child developing juvenile diabetes," Hirsh said. "It's become an insipid, toxic kind of thing ... Nobody thinks that going into McDonald's can be unhealthy because they promote their foods as healthy."

The teen, Gregory Rhymes, who likes to "Supersize" his orders, said he weighs 400 pounds and is 5 feet, 6 inches tall and has been diagnosed with diabetes.

Hirsh noted that an advertisement for McDonald's in France advises parents to permit their children to eat there only once a week.

"The plaintiff's theory of liability, if valid, would provide a basis for suing ... pizza parlors, neighborhood diners, bakeries, grocery stores and literally anyone else in the food business (including mothers cooking at home)," McDonald's lawyers argued in their motion to dismiss.

Hirsch said this case has two named plaintiffs but represents at least eight others.

Ashley Pelman, 14, of the Bronx, submitted an affidavit saying she weighs 170 pounds at 4 feet, 10 inches and has been eating at the chain three to four times a week since she was five.

Another named plaintiff, Jazlyn Bradley, 19, of Brooklyn, said she weighs 270 pounds and is 5 feet 6 inches tall, and that during a four-year-period she ate twice a day at McDonald's.

The parents of these children say they never saw posters in the restaurant explaining the nutritional content of the food.

"Common sense tells you this lawsuit makes no sense," said Walt Riker, a McDonald's spokesman."It is baseless and lacks merit."

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/...2869nov21.story