Law Students

?What If Someone Breaks a Tooth??

By Casebook Sherpa

Yesterday, I had what I’m convinced is a universal law school experience.

Last night, a classmate walked into the atrium outside our Torts class carrying a King Cake. That day at work, one of his clients (from New Orleans) had sent it to him as a thanks for his hard work. Some of us (including me) weren’t sure what a King Cake was, but quickly learned that it “is a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche, topped with icing or sugar, usually coloured purple, green, and gold (the traditional Carnival colors) with food colouring.” The cake contains a trinket, most commonly (since 1950, at least) a small plastic baby. Whoever gets the trinket in his or her piece of cake, gets the privilege of being king of the party or has to bring the cake next year (or any number of traditions depending on context).

Anyway, you see where I’m going. One by one our classmates, when they heard the backstory of the King Cake, asked, “what if you bite into it and break your tooth.” To this, the owner of the King Cake proudly pointed out, “That’s why they printed this disclaimer on the packaging.” Clearly, he had thought of it too and checked it out.

Later that night, I explained to another classmate about the cake, what it was, why the guy brought it. He said, “What if someone breaks a tooth?”

Welcome to a new way of thinking where the first question is not “what does it taste like?” but “can the baker get sued for sticking a plastic baby in it?”

Full post as published by Fight The Hypo on January 25, 2008 (boomark / email).