Bankrupt Coronet Foods Facing Lawsuit
Bankrupt Coronet Foods is now facing a lawsuit by 92 people from several states. On Wednesday a judge ruled the people who claim they got sick after eating tainted roma tomatoes could sue the store that sold them, and the company that supplied them, Wheeling based Coronet Foods.
"It's clear that the tomatoes were supplied by Coronet. Under the law they are strictly liable, said the attorney representing the complainants, Bill Marler.
Coronet laid-off their entire workforce after the salmonella outbreak when more than 400 people got sick. The judges ruling says now they are responsible for those who got sick. The attorney representing those who say they got salmonella says he would like to settle the dispute outside of court through mediation. He says coronet was against it.
"Coronet and their insurance company were simply not interested in doing that. The bankruptcy court therefore allowed us to get out of bankruptcy court and file our claims in state court, said Marler.
The president of Coronet says he just found out about the ruling but his attorney says mediation was not a problem.
"We didn't object to mediation. We believe mediation probably would be the best thing for all of these claims. We want to make sure everyone who had some potential responsibility was involved in mediation, said Coronet Attorney, Eric Anderson.
Meantime, the plaintiffs are asking the judge for what they call full and fair compensation.
