In what has to be the ultimate irony, a 290-pound New York man is suing the fast food chain White Castle because his wide body is too wide to fit into one of its standard-issue booths.
To add insult to injury the man, Martin Kessman, is citing the Americans with Disabilities Act, which he claims is “applicable, not only to me, but to pregnant women and to handicapped people.” Nice of him to include handicapped people!
The New York Post reports that Kessman, a stockbroker, entered the Nanuet, New York, store in April of 2009 and ordered a No. 2 combo meal. But when he attempted to shoehorn himself into one of the booths, he discovered that they are designed for normal—I mean “non-disabled”—people.
Kessman, who insists he has no problem “fitting in” at other fast food chains, wrote White Castle, complaining:
As I looked around the restaurant, I saw that there were no tables and chairs that could accommodate a person that merely wanted to sit down and eat his meal.
In a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan federal court, Kessman states that White Castle replied with three “very condescending letters.” Each contained a coupon for three free hamburgers; cheese, however, was extra. What—no cheese?? The nerve of them!
Kessman was so incensed by his treatment that he has since refused to set foot in the store. Instead when he wants sliders he sends his wife to pick up the food.
A spokesman for White Castle told the Post that Kessman could have approached a manager and asked for a regular chair. In addition, the store (sad to say) is renovating its booths to make them “comfortable for people with a little more weight,” although not fast enough to pacify Martin Kessman, who says, “I just want to sit down like a normal person.”
Here’s a newsflash for Kessman: If you want to sit down like a normal person, become one. Spend less time in White Castle and more (or any) in a gym. Drop some pounds. Then drop your silly lawsuit.
What Martin Kessman and others like him need is not a larger seat but a different seat—one that is somewhere other than at White Castle.
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