Salty Denny's Fare Survives Lawsuit

Lawsuits get a lot of attention when they're filed or a jury makes a multimillion dollar award, but not much when a judge throws them out.
Still, I'm chagrined that, after covering the complaint, I missed the dismissal last week of a lawsuit claiming Denny's perpetrated consumer fraud when it didn't tell a New Jersey man just how much salt its entrees have.

While Denny's offers a range of items, it's not hard to figure that some of them are salty. (If you're not persuaded, this link will tell you their Spicy BuffaloChicken Melt has 3,870 mg of sodium.)
The New Jersey judge held the defendant, Nick DeBenedetto, couldn't show physical injury from consuming Denny's meals.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which spearheaded the suit, says it will try again. In any event, their head of litigation told me that the real aim of these legal challenges to change the amount of salt in chain restaurant foods, a strategy that's worked in reducing transfats in menus. For now, though, Denny's can serve salty meals in the Garden State without fear of civil liability.