CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge has ruled customers wouldn't expect tequila in a hard seltzer just because it is "Ranch Water" flavored.
Attorney Spencer Sheehan and plaintiff Jonathan Nootens sued Molson Coors in Chicago federal court in 2022 but have now encountered a giant obstacle to recovering anything. Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on March 26 granted the company's motion to dismiss.
She is allowing Sheehan to file an amended complaint if he can rework his theory.
"Plaintiff has failed to plead any facts showing that reasonable consumers could plausibly conclude that the product contains tequila," she wrote.
"Even if the agave is the source plant for tequila, the label and ingredient list make no claim that the product contains tequila."
She cited one of Sheehan's other failed cases which alleged consumers expected strawberries to be the main ingredient in strawberry Pop-Tart filling. It's another loss for Sheehan, who has filed hundreds of consumer deception class actions that have angered some judges, including in Illinois.
This month, he lost a case over Mrs. Smith's pie crust said to be made with real butter and another over flavored Alka-Seltzer Plus cold and flu products. He also recently lost a case claiming lime-flavored Perrier drinkers were tricked by green bottles.
One judge has called him a "wrecking ball" and another in New York is currently considering what punishment he will receive after being held in contempt.
In the Ranch Water case, Sheehan said they were labeled as "100% Agave & Real Lime Juice" and as containing "Spiked Sparkling Water" while sold under the "Topo Chico" brand.
Nootens claims that he expected the product to contain alcohol from tequila due to the drink's misleading label. He alleges the product does not contain alcohol from tequila and does not include Topo Chico naturally sparkling mineral water from Mexico, which is "essential" to a ranch water beverage.
Nootens further alleges that the product label also misleadingly shows a picture of the agave plant, which is the source crop for tequila, and that consumers expect the defendant's beverage to contain tequila and others ingredients associated with ranch water.