If a restaurant provided you with so-called “fake butter” on your bagel after you ordered real butter — would you simply ask for new bagel, or would you file a costly lawsuit?
That’s the very choice that faced Jan Polanik of Worcester, MA after he ordered a bagel with real butter at Dunkin Donuts. Polanik, however, chose to file two lawsuits — accusing more than 20 Dunkin Donuts franchises in the state of “putting a butter substitute on his bagels when he ordered real butter.”
Interestingly, Polanik’s own attorney hinted at the ridiculousness of Polanik’s decision, telling the Boston Globe that, “Candidly, it seems like a really minor thing, and we thought twice or three times about whether to bring a lawsuit or not.”
But that didn’t stop them from suing the businesses, dragging them into costly litigation.
The class-action suits represented any customer who “ordered a baked product, such as a bagel, with butter, but instead received margarine or butter substitute between June 24, 2012, and June 24, 2016.”
The franchises and Polanik have reportedly reached a settlement, but details of that deal have not been reported.