‘It is a serious matter’ Ohio lawmaker introduces bill after boneless chicken case

In July, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that customers who order boneless chicken should expect bones.

Ohio Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, wants to change that with a bill that would establish a test for restaurants’ and suppliers’ liability for food with harmful substances.

“In 49 of the 50 states, boneless means without a bone, but in Ohio, boneless means the predominance of finding a bone,” he said.

What is the boneless chicken case in question?

In 2016, Hamilton resident Michael Berkheimer ordered his usual, boneless chicken wings with parmesan garlic sauce, at Wings on Brookwood. He ate the wings with a knife and fork as he usually did and accidentally swallowed a roughly 1.3-inch chicken bone.

The bone tore a hole in his esophagus, Berkheimer told The Cincinnati Enquirer, and led to infections and a two-month hospital stay. He sued the restaurant and the food supplier. The case went all the way up to the Ohio Supreme Court, but Berkheimer never got a jury trial.

The court ruled that boneless wings refers to a cooking method and not a guarantee of no bones.

“To say that boneless is food preparation, give me a break. That’s twisting the law,” DeMora said.

What would the bill do?

DeMora said it’s a matter of food safety and consumer protection.

“I don’t know anywhere in Ohio people don’t eat boneless wings,” he said. “Parents order their children chicken nuggets, those are boneless wings. They have to worry about there being bones now.”

His bill would allow for a jury trial for a civil lawsuit brought by someone who suffered injury, death or loss from consuming food with a substance harmful to human health. It would also create a “reasonable expectation test” to decide whether the restaurant or food supplier is liable for the injury.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. If it does not receive final approval before the end of the year, the bill will need to be introduced during the next general assembly.

“As members of the legislature, it’s our job to try to rectify this, and I hope my colleagues will at some point in the next session take this seriously, because it is a serious matter,” DeMora said.

Erin Glynn is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.