The Ohio Supreme Court determined in a divided ruling on Thursday that customers ordering boneless chicken wings cannot expect them to actually be free of bones, rejecting a lawsuit brought by a restaurant patron who suffered a severe injury from a bone lodged in his throat. The 4-3 ruling, decided in favor of Hamilton, Ohio chicken restaurant Wings on Brookwood, upheld lower court assessments that because chickens are known to have bones, diners should consume “boneless wings” at their own risk.

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The plaintiff, Ohio resident Michael Berkheimer, sustained an esophageal tear and a severe infection after eating what he believed to be nuggets of boneless chicken breast in 2016. After being left with lasting injuries that continue to cause him discomfort and prevent him from working, Berkheimer sued the restaurant, the meat supplier, and the farm that produced the chicken, accusing all three of negligence.

The Butler County Court of Common Pleas sided with the defendant, as did the 12th District Court of Appeals, prompting Berkheimer to bring his case to the Ohio Supreme Court, where it was once again rejected.

“A diner reading ‘boneless wings’ on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating ‘chicken fingers’ would know that he had not been served fingers,” Justice Joseph T. Deters wrote for the majority.

In response, the dissenting justices described this reasoning as “utter jabberwocky” and said the case should have been decided by a jury.

“The question must be asked: Does anyone really believe that the parents in this country who feed their young children boneless wings or chicken tenders or chicken nuggets or chicken fingers expect bones to be in the chicken? Of course they don’t,” Justice Michael P. Donnelly wrote in dissent. “When they read the word ‘boneless,’ they think that it means ‘without bones,’ as do all sensible people.”

For clarity, despite the name, “boneless wings” are not actually chicken wings, but rather strips of chicken breast that are breaded and fried…which just makes “boneless chicken wings” a more adult way of ordering chicken nuggets.


Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”

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