Well, Cargill has not yet responded to my offer – “Marler Clark to Cargill: Start Testing and We Won’t Sue You” – but they certainly do not seem adverse to lawsuits.

AP reported Friday that Cargill Meat Solutions filed a lawsuit against Greater Omaha Packing Company over a 2007 E. coli O157:H7 beef recall.  Friday’s filing in U.S. District Court in Omaha says Greater Omaha sold tainted beef to Cargill that were unknowingly processed into ground beef and sold to the public. About 845,000 pounds of the beef was recalled in August 2007 after consumers developed E. coli illness (actually closer to 2,000,0000 pounds in total).  Cargill’s lawsuit says Greater Omaha Packing violated the terms of its sales agreement by selling bad meat.

As I said in an earlier post, we filed multiple lawsuits against Cargill on behalf on most of the severely injured in the outbreak that sickened dozens in several states.  The most grievously sickened victim was Stephanie Smith, who developed HUS and spent months in a medically induced coma.  The former dance instructor was paralyzed from the waist down, and both her kidney function and cognitive abilities were impaired.  Michael Moss of the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for the article he wrote about Stephanie Smith and the background of the beef that went into the burger that made her sick.  Her lawsuit was settled in May 2010 for an undisclosed sum.