As Tim Hay of the San Mateo County Times reported in his story Firm sued over E. coli outbreak, my firm has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the son of 85-year-old Alice McWalter, one of at least 16 Sequoias Portola Valley residents and workers sickened with E. coli from eating spinach purchased and served by Sodexho. Alice McWalter was hospitalized for stomach pains on Oct. 14, and suffered through 12 days of fever, nausea and seizures before she died of kidney failure.

"That [they] died after eating contaminated spinach is particularly disturbing," attorney Bill Marler said in a prepared statement. "The whole state of California was, or should have been, paying special attention to food safety -- especially fresh produce safety -- at the time of this outbreak, since an outbreak in the San Diego area had been traced to E. coli-contaminated lettuce just weeks before."