A moviegoer who broke his tooth on an unpopped kernel of popcorn cannot sue the theater for his dental damages, a New York judge has ruled, finding consumers do not have a right to expect perfection in their popcorn.

Steve Kaplan's small claims case popped out of a visit to the AMC-Lincoln Square Cinema in Manhattan. He sued for reimbursement of the $1,250 that he spent on dental repairs, arguing that the theater had a duty to remove unpopped kernels from its popcorn or at least warn patrons of the danger of encountering them.

Under the test used in food contamination cases, a food provider may be held liable when the consumer of the food could not reasonably have expected to find the injury-causing object in it. New York has allowed dental damage recovery for consumers injured by everything from a walnut shell in a "nutted cheese" sandwich to a metal game tag in baked trout.

But in a first-of-its-kind decision granting judgment to AMC, Civil Court Judge Matthew F. Cooper said Kaplan's case was analogous to one in which an appeals court found a diner injured by a fish bone had “no right to expect a perfect piece of fish.”

“[A]nyone enjoying popcorn at the circus, at the ballpark or at the movies learns that there is no such thing as a bag, a tub, or a bucket where all the kernels have fully popped,” he noted, and

Until such time as the same bio-engineers who brought us seedless watermelon are able to develop a new strain of popping corn where every kernel is guaranteed to pop, we will just have to accept partially popped popcorn as part and parcel of the popcorn popping process.

The theater's manager testified that concession stand staff currently use a slotted popcorn scoop to weed out as many unpopped kernels as possible.

Cooper evidently relished analyzing the case, saying it “involves the great gastronomic/cinematic tradition of eating popcorn at the movies” and “like a surprising number of small claims cases ... presents one of those quirky issues that does not seem to have been previously addressed.”

He also speculated as to what “the popcorn-craving moviegoer [can] do to guard against dental damage, short of bringing a flashlight into the theater to inspect each kernel for possible hazards?”

Apart from “more cautious nibbling by the piece,” he suggested, “The other thing may be simply to say no to popcorn, with its tooth-fracturing potential, and settle for something else from the concession stand, like those giant-sized boxes of Raisinets or Milk Duds. But then again, aren't Milk Duds known to pull out your fillings?”

Relief may be on the way for popcorn eaters. According to ScienceDaily, scientists at Purdue University in Indiana have identified a key crystalline structure in popcorn that appears to determine its popping quality and this discovery could lead to microwave popcorn with fewer or even no unpopped kernels.

By Matthew Heller
9/30/08