The question of whether a caterer can be sued over food poisoning suffered by wedding guests produced a 5-4 split and two strong dissents at the Georgia Court of Appeals.

In the end, the majority said no, the guests could not sue because they could not prove it was the food served by “Big Kev's Barbecue” that made them sick. Judge Charlie Bethel wrote the June 30 opinion, joined by Presiding Judge M. Yvette Miller and Judges Elizabeth Branch, Carla McMillian and Amanda Mercier.

“A plaintiff may prevail in food poisoning cases in Georgia by establishing that the food at issue was defective or unwholesome,” Bethel wrote. “However, in the absence of direct evidence of the defectiveness of the food, recovery can be supported by circumstantial evidence only if every other reasonable hypothesis as to the cause of the plaintiff's illness can be excluded by the evidence brought forward by the plaintiff.”