Needle in a burger: Court delivers surprise verdict in restaurant case

South Africa – The Western Cape High Court has overturned a ruling that held a Stellenbosch restaurant liable for injuries suffered by a woman who swallowed a needle-like object while eating a hamburger, finding that negligence had not been proven.

According to IOL, the court upheld an appeal by Beyerskloof Wine Bar, setting aside a May 2025 judgment that had found the establishment liable for damages claimed by Maxine Williams.

The incident occurred on October 3, 2020, when Williams was dining with her husband at the restaurant. She experienced discomfort while eating and later sought medical attention after discovering that a foreign object was lodged in her throat.

According to EWN, medical examinations revealed the needle-like object, and Williams spent five days in hospital while doctors monitored its movement through her body.

Williams maintained that the object must have come from the food served to her. However, the court found that the evidence did not establish how the object entered the hamburger or which ingredient contained it.

In its appeal judgment, the full bench found that the trial court had incorrectly applied the legal principle res ipsa loquitur, meaning “the thing speaks for itself”, to infer negligence from the circumstances.

“The trial court could not rely merely on the maxim to fill in the gaps in the plaintiff’s evidence,” Judge P Van Zyl said, according to IOL.

Sunday World reported that the appeal court considered evidence that the restaurant sourced ingredients from established suppliers, had food-safety procedures in place and had not experienced a similar incident previously.

The judges ruled that the burden remained on Williams to prove negligence and that the restaurant could not automatically be held liable simply because a foreign object was allegedly found in its food.

The court consequently dismissed her claim and ordered her to pay the restaurant’s legal costs, including those incurred during the trial and appeal.

The ruling reverses the earlier judgment, which had found the restaurant liable for damages Williams could prove she suffered as a result of the incident.