Marler Blog - Providing commentary on food poisoning outbreaks & litigation

As Tim Hay of the San Mateo County Times reported today, a multinational food company and a Salinas vegetable farm have been ordered to pay an undisclosed amount to an elderly woman who was sickened in an outbreak of E. coli in a local retirement home, as well the son of a woman who died after eating the same tainted spinach in October 2003.

Marler Clark sued Sodexho USA and River Ranch Fresh Foods after an outbreak of the food-borne illness sickened at least 16 people and caused the deaths of two others at the Sequoias Portola Valley retirement community.

County health officials said the outbreak was most likely caused by pre-packaged spinach that Sodexho bought from River Ranch and served at the 315-bed home.

Marler Clark represented Keith McWalter, whose 85-year-old mother, Alice McWalter, died when the E. coli caused kidney failure. Mrs. McWalter was hospitalized on Oct. 14, and suffered 12 days of fever and nausea before she died.

The other Marler Clark client was Sequoias resident Sarah Ish. She was hospitalized with severe nausea during the outbreak, but pulled through.

FOOD IRRADIATION UPDATE
January 15, 2005

"People's perception of the disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) is
coloured by the fact that it's not a very nice disease," adding that
salmonella, botulism and E. coli are much more effective killers." Stephen
Moore, chairman of bovine genomics, University of Alberta's department of
agriculture

"We've resolved our differences. Both restaurants agreed to settle the
claims with the (E. coli) victims and are now going upstream after the
suppliers," William Marler, Attorney, Marler Clark.

We as Americans have grown up believing that our food supply is the safest in the world. But the CDC estimates that over 300,000 people are hospitalized and over 5,000 die, just from eating food contaminated with a pathogen. In recent years, E. coli outbreaks have been linked to not just ground beef, but also to sprouts, lettuce, and steaks. Salmonella outbreaks have been traced to foods such as tomatoes, orange juice and cantaloupe. The largest Hepatitis-A outbreak in United States history has been linked to green onions. School children in a Chicago suburb were served chicken fingers contaminated with ammonia. And now, "Mad Cow" disease has been discovered at a slaughterhouse in Washington State.

While the incubation period for most foodborne pathogens is a matter of days and symptoms of hepatitis-A infection frequently do not show up for over a month, symptoms of Mad Cow, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, do not appear for up to forty years.

Because we should not have to worry about what we eat today, and the impact that it could have on us decades from now, we need stronger and more aggressive regulation by the USDA and the FDA. These two arms of the government must do everything they can to protect the consuming public.

Specifically:

Require the meat industry to document where specific lots of food are sold. That way, it can be recalled quickly if a pathogen is detected. In most outbreaks, there is no recall because retailers do not know where the meat came from and processors rarely step forward. Timely online records would allow meat to be efficiently tracked down and recalled as soon as inspectors get a positive test result.

Merge the two federal agencies (USDA and FDA) responsible for food safety. Right now, USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service and the inspection arm of the Food and Drug Administration share this mission. The system is bifurcated, which leads to turf wars and split responsibilities. We need one independent agency that deals with food-borne pathogens.

Finally, large purchasers of meat - fast food industry, grocery store chains, and yes, the USDA - must require the meat industry to produce high quality, pathogen lessened, meat. Can you imagine the power they can put on slaughterhouses to clean up this mess?

So far eight families have contacted Marler Clark, and one lawsuit has been filed, over the Wendy's ground beef E. coli outbreak in Marion County.

One family was hit twice when the two sons, a 4-year-old and a 23-month-old, became sick from E. coli. The 4-year-old was released last week from Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital, and the 23-month-old remained in fair condition Saturday night. Both had been on dialysis, after which patients can either recover or require transplants, depending on the severity of the condition.

As the Statesman Journal reports, three weeks after the largest E. coli outbreak in Marion County history, the investigation focuses on Wendy's ground beef, said Dr. Paul Cieslak of the Oregon Health Division. The connection was made after a second Wendy's restaurant in Tualatin was linked to the outbreak when an adult female was confirmed Sept. 2 as an E. coli victim. The DNA of the E. coli matched that of the Salem outbreak, confirming a common contamination source.

The lettuce link can be explained by cross contamination, which may have occurred because of improper food handling.

From interviews with Wendy's employees, officials determined that a few workers had washed lettuce in a sink that had not been sanitized and previously contained utensils that had touched raw meat.

Half Moon Bay fruit-juice maker Odwalla Inc. has reached a settlement -- reportedly for $12 million to $15 million -- with the families of five young victims of a 1996 food-poisoning outbreak caused by a tainted batch of the company's apple juice.

The hefty settlement brings closer to an end a painful saga for the company and victims' families, which began when Washington health authorities announced the outbreak at Halloween a year and a half ago. The company now has settled 17 lawsuits, with three remaining.

"It's behind us now and we will move on," said Terry Beverly of Seattle, a Microsoft engineer whose son, now 4, hovered near death after being stricken with an advanced stage of poisoning caused by a deadly microbe known as E. coli O157:H7.

"We're very pleased to be able to fully compensate these children and to move forward with the families and with the lawyers to address the bigger issues of food-safety awareness," said Chris Gallagher, a company official.

The Washington Supreme Court today declined to review last year's Court of Appeals decision upholding a $4.6 million award to 11 children injured in a 1998 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that was linked to undercooked taco meat served as part of a school lunch at Finley Elementary School. School District had sought the Supreme Court's review arguing that school districts should not be held legally responsible if ill-prepared food sickens or kills a student. The Supreme Court refused to consider the argument.

Denis Stearns, one of the founding partners at Marler Clark, said:

"Washington State has a long history of holding school accountable when the children in their care are injured or killed. We believe that the Supreme Court's decision today reaffirms the principle that, when it comes to preparing food for their students, a school's foodservice operation should be held to the same high standard as any other restaurant licensed to operate in this State."

"School-aged children are more vulnerable than most when it comes to exposure to contaminated food. Those who argue for lower-standards plainly do not understand what the problem is, or what is truly at stake. If anything, schools should be held to the highest standards. These are our children we are talking about."

William Marler, a Seattle attorney who represents children throughout the United States poisoned by E. coli, speaks out on Ohio and Kentucky E. coli cases tied to Kentucky Fried Chicken Coleslaw.

"Nearly everyday I hear about another case of E. coli, Salmonella or Lysteria tied to some food product. However, I have never seen a situation where the same product injures different people who ate at the same restaurant chain one year apart -- usually a company learns from past mistakes," said attorney William Marler of Marler Clark. According to reports by the Omaha World-Herald in March 1999, KFC was implicated in 27 confirmed E. coli illnesses stemming from coleslaw at a Greenwood, Indiana restaurant in May 1998.

At that time, the Indiana Health Department found:

• The cabbage was packaged in net bags, which could have allowed for contamination during shipment.
• Food handlers at the restaurant did not wash the cabbage before shredding despite noticing that it was of poor quality and heavily soiled when it arrived. This probably allowed the E. coli organism to be introduced into the coleslaw.
• The restaurant with the illnesses quickly changes its coleslaw preparation practices to include the use of pre-washed and pre-shredded cabbage rather than whole cabbage.

"It is frankly shocking that KFC did not move faster to assure its customers that lightening, in the form of E. coli, would not strike twice. I think the Ohio and Kentucky Health Departments should look very hard at pressing charges against KFC," added Marler.

Back in late 2003, Todd Frankel of the Post-Dispatch called dining with me an unusual experience in his article "Seattle attorney is representing 5 of 6 victims in E. coli outbreak," which referred to the Habaneros E. coli outbreak in Missouri.

I told him:

"I haven't eaten a hamburger since Jack in the Box," Marler said, referring to the massive 1993 E. coli outbreak on the West Coast that served as his first experience with his narrow specialty.

"The level of trust we have toward our food supply, in my view, is unwarranted," Marler said, taking another bite of his salad.

In case you were wondering, I'm still not eating hamburgers.

He also wrote:

He doesn't go trolling for business, he said. He's been involved in several high-profile outbreaks: from salmonella in fruit juices to E. coli at an Atlanta water park.

I'm still not trolling. Yet those cases still keep finding me.

Marler Clark got BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. and a meat supplier to agree to pay $ 11 million to the family of a New York girl developed HUS after eating contaminated hamburgers.

We also represent a young boy whose family bought tainted hamburger from another BJ's Wholesale Club store.

As I said in the article:

The amount "is never enough to make it right," since the 8-year-old girl will have "life-long" health problems as a result of her injuries.

A not-so-Sunny reminder?
Class Action Lawsuit Filed by Marler Clark re Sun Orchard Orange Juice Salmonella Outbreak

In July of 1999, Marler Clark,filed a nationwide class action lawsuit on behalf of all persons sickened and injured by unpasteurized orange juice contaminated with a rare strain of the Salmonella bacteria. The contaminated juice was manufactured by Sun Orchard.

At the time that lawsuit was filed, Marler Clark had been contacted by over 30 persons in several states with possible claims against Sun Orchard. The named plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Jim and Fiona Jackson, the parents of Ian Jackson, a 4 year old boy who became seriously ill when he drank Sun Orchard orange juice contaminated with Salmonella.

As I said then:

"It's simply outrageous that, after all we know about the importance of pasteurization, especially after the Odwalla E. coli outbreaks, we still have companies selling unpasteurized fruit juice, and justifying it on the grounds that it's more flavorful if not pasteurized, and more full of vitamins," said William Marler, of the Marler Clark law firm. "At a minimum, consumers should be warned of the potential risks of consuming these unpasteurized products. The question is why Sun Orchard did not want a warning label on this product."

Are we making progress?

Some good news for one of my young clients who went through the agony of HUS from eating a hamburger. Stephen Tyler Roberts, now 13, but at the time a fifth-grader, was hospitalized and needed several blood transfusions in April 1998. He was one of the unfortunate children at Danielsville Elementary School who ate the hamburgers served in the school cafeteria, which turned out to be contaminated with the deadly E. coli O157:H7.

This contaminated meat went to schools, prisons and military institutions in the South. The meat was supplied by Bauer Meat Co. in Ocala Florida, which since declared bankruptcy.

As I said in the article Boy's Family Settles Lawsuit Over E. coli:

Stephen did not need dialysis to help him recover, a scenario many young children undergo when their kidneys shut down from E. coli poisoning. However, future consequences resulting from the E. coli episode may be further complicated by the boy's diabetes, said Marler, a Seattle attorney specializing in food-borne lawsuits. "With diabetes, it's harder to predict what the long-term damage of E. coli will be," he said. "But, now he's doing great."

Marler contends U.S. schoolchildren continue to be at risk for eating contaminated meat because school districts get the beef for free from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's school lunch program, which has bought the lower- grade beef at reduced prices. The USDA is the same federal agency overseeing meat plant safety. Two schools in Washington and Texas had E. coli outbreaks last year.

"It is time for the USDA to act to ensure that our children are not eating food that is contaminated," Marler said.

The USDA is currently being probed for its school lunch program by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Marler Clark has been retained by four victims of a June outbreak of salmonellosis at a Gates country club. In an article titled Outbreak Victims Hire Top Lawyer, one of the Florida men (my client) sickened by this outbreak describes the illness he went through as 'one of the worst weeks of [his] life.' The other three Marler Clark clients referenced in the article are a Rochester family.

All four attended the same party on June 9 at Brook-Lea Country Club and have culture-confirmed cases of the bacterial illness. The Monroe County Health Department has confirmed 55 other cases so far - not all of them linked to the Pixley Road country club. County records show two significant earlier outbreaks of salmonellosis - one in 1987 and the other in 1995. Both sickened more than 100 people.

As the article says:

Marler Clark has filed Freedom of Information Law requests for state and Monroe County documents about the incident.

"I try not to interfere with Health Department investigations," said Marler, who has an epidemiologist on staff. "But I monitor what they do."

As the Associated Press reported today, Marler Clark has filed yet another lawsuit against McDonalds. This one is on behalf of Helen Cook who contracted hepatitis A after eating a sandwich at a Mount Vernon McDonald's restaurant.

From the article:

"It just underscores the need for fast-food restaurants to be ever vigilant about how they handle their product, how they cook their product and who they have working," Marler said.

As I told the AP, Cook ate breakfast at the Mount Vernon McDonald's before going to a nearby nursing home to care for her mother. She began to feel sick during a trip to Palm Springs, Calif., when she suffered from fatigue, cold sweats and abdominal soreness. After suffering intense pain and vomiting in April, she was hospitalized and diagnosed with hepatitis.The Skagit County Health Department, which had reports of nine cases of hepatitis-A in the area, traced the outbreak to the McDonald's, where an assistant manager had the virus and continued to work.

Her illness is a reminder of how vulnerable Americans have become to disease transmitted through food.

This the second I have filed against the same restaurant. The previous suit sought damages on behalf of Nyssa Hall, then 6, who was sickened by E. coli bacteria from undercooked hamburger. That lawsuit was settled.

"Listeria monocytogenes is a particularly nasty pathogen that can cause severe injury, including death. It appears that Bil Mar Foods and Sara Lee will ultimately be held responsible for this incident," said, William Marler, whose law firm Marler Clark has represented victims of food borne illnesses through out the United States.

Denis Stearns, a Marler Clark partner said, "It is becoming apparent that listeria is more common than we previously thought, and requires greater vigilance from both food manufacturers and consumers." Continues Stearns, "If it is confirmed that this outbreak is linked to cold cuts, then there is truly cause for alarm. This is food that is intended to be eaten without being cooked. There's nothing a consumer could have done to avoided this. It's like being sucker-punched."

In 1983 in Massachusetts, 49 people became ill after consuming contaminated pasteurized milk. 42 cases occurred in immuno-compromised adults. Fifteen deaths resulted. In 1985 in California, there were 86 cases of listeriosis due to consumption of Mexican-style soft cheese made from raw milk. Forty-two of the neonatal infants developed listeriosis. In Texas, 1988, a female cancer patient died as a result of listeriosis after consuming turkey frankfurters. The turkey frankfurters, which came from a processor in Texas, and were found at supermarket outlets and in the woman's refrigerator, tested positive for Listeria.

As the Associated Press reported today, Marler Clark has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Suzie and and Hector Lapuyade of Redwood City against the owners of Viva Mexico, a local restaurant shut down after the area's worst food poisoning outbreak in years.

The enchilada meal the Lapuyade family ate Oct. 21 led to days of excruciating abdominal cramps, severe diarrhea, fever and vomiting for Suzie and her young son. Lab tests confirmed that Suzie Lapuyade, 40, and her 9-year-old son Maurice contracted shigellosis, a gastrointestinal disease that spread through bacteria-tainted food.

From the article:

"They are certainly entitled to a decision about what the value of what they went through for a week is worth," attorney Marler said. Marler's firm has represented 1,500 food poisoning victims in the past seven years, including those affected by the 1998 E. coli contamination of Odwalla juice. "Twelve jurors in San Mateo County will help us all make a decision."

There's nothing more American than the county fair. From Washington and California to New York and Texas, countless millions of people are visiting their local fairs to ride the rides, feast on cotton candy and hot dogs, and to visit those cute farm animals.

Unfortunately, some of the visitors to fairs will get very sick. And the sickest ones, most of them small children, may be close to death before their doctors identify the cause - a relatively new strain of deadly bacteria known as E. coli O157:H7.

Most people identify this pathogen with undercooked hamburgers from fast food restaurants. But as a lawyer who has represented thousands of victims of food-borne illness, I have learned that people, especially children, can be infected in a variety of ways - including attending a local county fair or petting zoo.

Any place where people come into contact with farm animals must be considered high risk. The track record speaks for itself. Since 1995, thirteen outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported at fairs and petting zoos. Thousands have been sickened. Many escape with a bad case of diarrhea and cramps. But some, mostly kids, have suffered permanent damage to their kidneys.

And some have died.

William Marler is the managing partner in the law firm Marler Clark L.L.P., P.S. Since 1993, Mr. Marler has represented thousands of victims of E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Listeria, Shigella, Campylobacter and Norwalk Virus illnesses in over thirty States. As a trial lawyer, Mr. Marler has been involved with several cases of national importance. He represented the children murdered by Wesley Alan Dodd, an escaped Washington State convict; the family of William Louth, who died when a crane collapsed during Kingdome roof repairs; the Terlicker family in its suit against Martin Pang and the City of Seattle stemming from an arson fire; and Brianne Kiner in her $15.6 million E. coli settlement with Jack-in-the-Box. This settlement created a state record for an individual personal injury action. Mr. Marler resolved several other Jack-in-the-Box E. coli cases for more than $2.5 million each.

In May of 1998, he settled the Odwalla Juice E. coli outbreak for the families of children who were severely injured after consuming Odwalla apple juice for $12 million. He represented several children in an E. coli outbreak stemming from E. coli contaminated swimming pool water in Georgia. In 2001 he successfully tried to verdict an E. coli case involving a school lunch program in Washington State. The jury returned a verdict of $4.75 million. He also resolved dozens of E. coli cases in 2003 related to one of the largest meat recalls in United States. Mr. Marler recently settled an E. coli case for a young girl for $11 million. In addition, Mr. Marler has been lead counsel in:

Sheetz Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/Sheetz/Sheetz.htm
Paramount Farms Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/paramount/paramount.htm
Sequoias E. coli Outbreak:
www.about-ecoli.com/news/sequoias.htm
Chi Chi's Hepatitis A Outbreak:
http://www.about-hepatitis.com/articles/chichis/chichis.htm
Goldcoast Produce E. coli Outbreak:
http://www.about-ecoli.com/news/goldcoast.htm
Golden Corral Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/goldencorral/goldencorral.htm
Habaneros E. coli Outbreak:
http://www.about-ecoli.com/news/habanero.htm
Chili's Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/chilis/chilis.htm

William Marler is the managing partner in the law firm Marler Clark L.L.P., P.S. Since 1993, Mr. Marler has represented thousands of victims of E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Listeria, Shigella, Campylobacter and Norwalk Virus illnesses in over thirty States. As a trial lawyer, Mr. Marler has been involved with several cases of national importance. He represented the children murdered by Wesley Alan Dodd, an escaped Washington State convict; the family of William Louth, who died when a crane collapsed during Kingdome roof repairs; the Terlicker family in its suit against Martin Pang and the City of Seattle stemming from an arson fire; and Brianne Kiner in her $15.6 million E. coli settlement with Jack-in-the-Box. This settlement created a state record for an individual personal injury action. Mr. Marler resolved several other Jack-in-the-Box E. coli cases for more than $2.5 million each. In May of 1998, he settled the Odwalla Juice E. coli outbreak for the families of children who were severely injured after consuming Odwalla apple juice for $12 million. He represented several children in an E. coli outbreak stemming from E. coli contaminated swimming pool water in Georgia. In 2001 he successfully tried to verdict an E. coli case involving a school lunch program in Washington State. The jury returned a verdict of $4.75 million. He also resolved dozens of E. coli cases in 2003 related to one of the largest meat recalls in United States. Mr. Marler recently settled an E. coli case for a young girl for $11 million. In addition, Mr. Marler has been lead counsel in:.......