EAST ST. LOUIS – Baking Lorna Doone cookies without butter doesn’t qualify as fraud, U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn ruled on Oct. 31.
He dismissed a class action complaint that Goldie Troutt of Olney filed against cookie maker Mondelez Global.
Troutt claimed a promise of shortbread on a package she bought at the local Wal-Mart constituted a promise of butter.
“Troutt jumped to the conclusion that the cookies contained butter without any supporting foundation," McGlynn wrote.
He found her understanding of the label fanciful and unreasonable.
Spencer Sheehan of Great Neck, New York filed the complaint last year with Peter Lubin of Elmhurst as local counsel.
They proposed a consumer fraud action for Illinois and another for Delaware, Kansas, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming.
In March, Mondelez Global moved to dismiss the complaint as vague and fanciful.
McGlynn allowed Sheehan and Lubin to make the complaint more specific and they amended it in June.
Mondelez Global moved to dismiss it on July 15.
Lubin moved to withdraw as Troutt’s counsel on July 29.
McGlynn found the standard for deception requires probability that a label would mislead a significant portion of consumers acting reasonably.
He found it requires more than a mere possibility that some few customers viewing a label in an unreasonable manner might misunderstand it.
He dismissed the complaint with prejudice, finding Troutt took advantage of an opportunity to amend it.
Alexander Smith and Dean Panos of Chicago represented Mondelez Global.