Lawsuit Claims Cheney Brothers’ Poultry Deliveries Weigh Less than Customers Ordered, Paid For

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Food distributor Cheney Brothers, Inc. faces a proposed class action filed by a Winter Haven, Florida restaurant operator who claims to have been shorted on its poultry purchases.

According to the case, Cheney Brothers frequently delivers smaller amounts of chicken than promised and charges customers for quantities that weigh significantly less than represented.

“Cheney Brothers’ Poultry, thawed and weighed soon after unloading from delivery trucks, weighs less than the advertised, represented, invoiced, agreed, and sold weight,” the complaint alleges. “Cheney Brothers’ weights are shorted in weight, so that orders are as much as 5.25 percent lighter than the paid-for amount.”

Cheney Brothers is a broadline food distributor who sells and delivers food to thousands of restaurants, hotels, country clubs and other food service operators, the lawsuit states. Per the case, the plaintiff business operates two Winter Haven restaurants, under the names DiMaggio’s Italian Restaurant and Giovanni’s New York Pizza, for which it buys poultry products from Cheney Brothers.

The case relays that the plaintiff’s and other customers’ business agreements with Cheney Brothers are based on product weight, with the businesses paying an agreed-upon amount for standard 20- or 40-pound boxes of chicken products.

“That weight is important to Plaintiff and the Class, not only because a certain weight is necessary for their business operations (namely cooking for their customers), but also because pricing is calculated by that weight,” the lawsuit reads.

According to the suit, however, the weight of the products Cheney Brothers actually delivers to its customers is frequently lighter than the agreed-upon amount. Thus, these “significant, material, inaccuracies” have resulted in customers overpaying for Cheney Brothers’ products, the lawsuit charges.

The plaintiff business alleges that for one particular delivery, the defendant was to deliver two 40-pound cases of chicken breast filets priced at $1.24 per pound for a total of $99.20. According to the complaint, each case contained four bags of chicken breasts. Although the frozen bags weighed 10.05 pounds each, when the plaintiff defrosted and drained the bags of water, one bag weighed “only 9.475 pounds, short 0.525 pounds or 5.25 percent,” the suit claims. In light of this shortage, each case would be 2.1 pounds short of chicken, according to the complaint.

Alleging that deliveries are routinely short by several pounds, the suit contends that the discrepancy between what customers have ordered and paid for and what Cheney Brothers delivers exceeds what a reasonable buyer would expect during packing, shipping or delivery, and has caused customers to overpay, the filing alleges. From the complaint:

The lawsuit, which has been removed from Palm Beach County, Florida Circuit Court to the state’s Southern District Court, looks to represent anyone in the U.S. and its territories who purchased poultry products from Cheney Brothers and took deliveries from September 15, 2017 to the present. Alternatively, the case proposes to cover Florida persons and entities who purchased the products during the same timeframe.

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