An eastern Iowa girl remains hospitalized after eating tacos at a Cedar Falls Taco John’s restaurant two weeks ago. Nine year old Autumn Saul became very sick, suffering from diarrhea and abdominal cramps. She developed the most serious complication of E. coli poisoning and ultimately needed a blood transfusion. Nine year old Autumn Saul never imagined two soft shell tacos would make her so sick. “Consumers can’t see safety. Whether you’re talking about spinach on the shelves or a taco in a restaurant, the consumer has no way of assessing who has the safer food,” says Saul’s attorney Dave Babcock.
“The law treats Taco John’s as a manufacturer of a product. It treats a food that’s infected with a bacteria as a defective product. If you sell a defective product to your consumers, you’re responsible for what happens,” Babcock says. The Seattle-based Marler Clark law firm is representing the Sauls. Marler Clark also represented victims of this summer’s spinach E. coli outbreak and is also representing clients affected by recent food poisonings at Taco Bell restaurants.
