A Sacramento woman presumably drunk on power and guacamole hopes to bring Chipotle to its knees by suing the chain for $2 billion dollars. As ABC 10 reports, she claims the fast casual trailblazer used her image in promotional materials without her permission. Leah Caldwell is targeting the chain, CEO Steve Ellis, and photographer Steve Adams as defendants, according to Denver 7. Like all sane people, she’ll be representing herself in the action.
In her petition, Caldwell says she was approached by Adams in a Denver Chipotle back in 2006. He asked her to sign a release, but she refused. Years later, however, Caldwell saw her face on the walls of Chipotle locations in Orlando, Sacramento, and Roseville. Furthermore, the photos had been edited. In addition to her appearance being “distorted,” beer bottles had been inserted onto the table near her, which, according to the petition, “put a false light upon her character associated with consuming alcoholic beverages.”
She’s now seeking $2,237,633,000—a number arrived upon by calculating the company’s presumed profits from 2006 to 2015—though that number may be ballooning now that she’s looking to add 2016 profits into the mix. Or maybe not. Chipotle’s policy is not to comment on pending legal action, but you can bet someone over there is hoping this isn’t another Gawker/Hulk Hogan situation.