Peanut Corporation of America In Bankruptcy/Liquidation
Peanut Corporation of America filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy Friday, a move that could stir even more outrage among families who have suffered injury or death from the company’s peanut butter Salmonella outbreak.
In a Chapter 7 filing, companies liquidate and distribute their assets to creditors. Often, lawsuits are put on temporary hold by the courts.
Fred Pritzker, founder and president of national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, said he will fight to push the litigation forward. But a delay of justice is possible. His clients in the nationwide Salmonella Typhimurim outbreak include the families of two Minnesota women who died after eating PCA’s contaminated peanut butter.
Pritzker was quoted Friday by The Associated Press as saying: “For all the people whose loved ones have been killed or people who have been out of work or suffered serious injury or who have incurred medical bills, right now they are just left with a lump of uncertainty.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said 637 people in 44 states have been infected by the same strain of Salmonella found in peanut butter and peanut paste made at PCA’s idle plant in Georgia. Federal health agencies associate nine deaths with the outbreak, including three in Minnesota and two in Ohio.
PCA is under federal criminal investigation in connection with the outbreak. This week, after Texas health investigators inspected a PCA plant in Plainview, Texas, that facility also was shut down. All products ever made at the plant were recalled after the inspection found rodents, feces and feathers in a crawl space above a peanut processing area.
We welcome your comments. What do you think of the bankruptcy filing by Peanut Corporation of America?
