Ever wonder why businesses are so afraid of lawsuits, especially ones that involve the workforce? It’s because we live in an ultra-litigious society where anybody can sue over anything, and even the silliest lawsuit can become a workforce nightmare in the hands of the wrong judge.

Case in point: a recent ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans earlier this month that now puts into question whether government employees can clean out the office refrigerator and toss that bad sandwich or moldy yogurt. According to a story in the Houston Chronicle, “Thanks to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Texas, government employees must receive adequate notice before their personal belongings can be tossed out … [and] a simple notice posted on the offending refrigerator or even an e-mail blast about an upcoming purge may not be enough.”

Silly as it may sound, the case revolves around due process and whether a tenured chemistry professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio was given adequate notice that some of his belongings—belongings that the university administration felt created “an extreme fire hazard”—would be discarded if he failed to remove them. Although the case primarily revolves around belongings in the professor’s lab and office, the university also tossed items in his refrigerator. This has led to a lot of speculation over how this high-level legal ruling might be applied to the workplace.

“The 5th Circuit, a federal appellate court that ordinarily devotes its time to more august matters like death penalty appeals and cutting-edge civil appeals,” Brian Wice, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in criminal appeals, told the Chronicle, “has … put all of those Felix Unger types on notice: Thou shall not toss out our stuff unless you have first given us a ‘reasonable’ form of notice.” Or, as Candy Aldridge, the acting director of human resources for the city of Houston, put it: “What do you do when the fridge quits working and it’s full of lunches?”

Good question. It is just another example of the type of activities many managers and HR people have to deal with that have absolutely nothing to do with business strategy or creating value. No wonder HR has such a hard time getting a seat at the table. They’re too busy worrying about due process for that bad tuna sandwich that has been festering for months in the back of the office fridge.