Texas Mother Sues NY Restaurant Over Broken Teeth Caused By Hard Plastic In Sandwich

A Texas mother and her eight-year-old daughter walked away from a fancy lunch at a New York restaurant with cracked teeth and a lawsuit on their hands, according to new legal documents. Stevie Bingham, 48, says her family vacation in the holiday season of 2023 turned into a nightmare after they ordered mozzarella sandwiches at the Obica Mozzarella Bar on Madison Avenue.

The trouble started when Bingham took a bite of the $19 sandwich and immediately began screaming in pain. She told the Daily Mail that she asked what was wrong, then tried her own bite only to crack one of her front teeth right there. Her daughter suffered even worse damage. The lawsuit claims the girl sustained serious and permanent personal injuries after biting into hard plastic or other dangerous foreign materials hidden inside the food.

Bingham, who runs a stylist business in Houston, says the force of that object knocked out her daughter's dental sealant and broke half of her own tooth. Now she faces having to live with a fake tooth for life. It ruined their trip. Instead of seeing the city lit up for the holidays, they flew home straight to emergency dental appointments.

Eric Love, Bingham's attorney, described the scene as a disaster where a mother spat out part of her tooth and a little girl sat in a dentist's chair. The complaint filed by Love states that these injuries happened solely because of the negligence, carelessness, and recklessness of the restaurant staff. He accuses Obica of negligence, breaching implied warranty, and causing loss of services and expenses.

The manager at the scene allegedly offered laughable compensation and refused to pay for the dental work needed. This is a big deal for a chain that advertises itself as being located by the iconic Trump Tower. The Mozzarella Bar Experience on Madison Avenue can be purchased for $54. Obica operates more than 20 restaurants across the world, including spots in Europe and Japan. Its website boasts pure, warm and inspiring design details which develop the sense of well being around their menu.

The chain is owned by the Scudieri family, an Italian industrial dynasty. Paolo Scudieri, 66, owns Obica on Madison Avenue. His personal net worth is valued around $500 million. Naples-born Paolo serves as the chairman of car interior components producer Gruppo Addler, which was founded by his father Achille in 1956. The firm designs and manufactures acoustic and thermal components for the automotive industry.

With operations spanning 23 countries and a workforce swelling past 15,000 people, the business generates roughly $1 billion in annual turnover. The scale is staggering when you consider just one owner's stake. Scudieri sits on a personal fortune estimated at half a billion dollars, yet he has not stopped there. He expanded his reach into food and drink, turning Excellence Campane into a global chain that now runs shops and restaurants around the planet, including the Obica brand. Attempts to get clarity from Obica fell flat. The Daily Mail reached out for comment on more than one occasion, but silence was all they received back.