Lawsuit Charges Burger King With Negligence

Burger King Corp. was charged in a lawsuit with acting negligently when it distributed millions of potentially hazardous Pokemon balls to children. The suit, filed in Dallas County Court in Texas, came three days after the hamburger chain recalled the popular toy, which had been included in its Kids Meals for about two months, after reports that an 18-month-old girl suffocated on one of the toys. The suit does not name Burger King’s parent company, Diageo, or the manufacturer of the toy ball, Los Angeles-based Equity Marketing Inc., said Jeff Rasansky, a Dallas attorney for the plaintiff. The suit seeks to recover the cost to parents of up to 70 million children’s meals that Burger King has sold since it began distributing the toy, Rasansky said. Burger King said it had not seen the lawsuit but had seen the news release issued by lawyers for the named plaintiff, Jennifer Widner of Dallas. Widner seeks to be the lead plaintiff in a nationwide class-action suit. “Most of the statements included in the announcement have no basis in fact,” a company statement said. “As a result, we will obviously defend ourselves vigorously.”