The Portland Oregonian reported:
Minnesota couple first to sue ConAgra over tainted potpies
Attorneys filed the first lawsuit this morning against ConAgra Foods Inc. over potpies tied to a multistate salmonella outbreak. The suit was filed in federal court in Minnesota by attorneys representing a couple whose 22-month-old daughter suffered a seizure, fever and severe diarrhea in August. State health officials in Minnesota later matched the type of salmonella that infected Isabelle Reinert with others who had fallen ill after eating Banquet-brand potpies.
Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney representing the Reinert family, said a recall is necessary. Marler also sued ConAgra earlier this year following a nationwide recall of the company’s Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter, also tied to a salmonella outbreak. "I don’t quite understand what ConAgra’s doing," Marler said. "They may never recall the stuff officially, but it’s just going to come back to them as consumers hear of problems."
David Unze of the Saint Cloud Times and I spoke this morning:
Sauk Rapids family sues over salmonella poisoning
A Sauk Rapids family has sued ConAgra Foods after their daughter contracted salmonella poisoning from a Banquet-brand pot pie. Amy and Joshua Reinert’s 19-month-old daughter, Isabelle, was seriously ill this summer and required outpatient treatment that included two eight-hour days of receiving antibiotics and fluids through an IV drip. The Minnesota Department of Health confirmed through genetic testing that the salmonella that Isabelle contracted had the same genetic fingerprint associated with the pot pie outbreak, said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney representing the Reinert family.
Marler called ConAgra’s efforts the worst management of a food-related illness he has seen in his years of litigating such cases, and said the company should have recalled the pot pies. He’s more concerned now with making sure the word gets out to consumers about the dangers and that stores pull the pot pies before more are sold to people who don’t know about the salmonella outbreak. “That stuff is still on the shelf being sold in grocery stores around the country and people are buying it,” Marler said. “Talk about criminal. That almost borders on criminal behavior.”