Two men claiming to be relatives of Anna Short Harrington—the woman whose face and overall likeness was used to create the character and logo Aunt Jemima, the most iconic face in pancakes—had filed a class action lawsuit seeking $2 billion plus punitive damages.
Last week a judge tossed the case, noting that the two men—D.W. Hunter and Larnell Evans Jr., both of whom claimed to be Harrington’s great-grandsons—came to court with little more than a story about the woman and a photo that they now claim to be unable to find.
According to TMZ, “Hunter told the judge his grandmother once gave him a photo of Harrington—a photo he no longer has—and claimed that proved his relation.”
The men claimed that they were bringing the lawsuit against PepsiCo Inc., Quaker Oats, Pinnacle Foods and Hillshire Brands Co. on behalf of the Harrington family, who, they claimed, hadn’t received their fair share for Harrington’s work not only as the face of the brand but also playing the actual character from 1935 until the late 1950s.
Once the men couldn’t prove that they were related to Harrington, it didn’t take long for the judge to dismiss the case.
Read more at TMZ.