Second Peanut Butter Salmonella Wrongful Death Suit To Be Filed
Less than two weeks after filing the nation’s first wrongful death lawsuit in the ongoing, peanut butter-related Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak, Minneapolis-based Pritzker | Olsen, P.A., has been retained by the family of the late Doris Flatgard to file a second such suit. The firm issued a press release today with details:
PRESS RELEASE
Minneapolis, Minn. – January 31, 2009 — National food safety law firm Pritzker | Olsen, P.A., has been retained by the family of an 87-year-old Minnesota woman to file a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against Peanut Corporation of America, the company that federal officials have said is the cause of a 43-state outbreak that has resulted in eight deaths and more than 100 hospitalizations.
The suit on behalf of the family of the late Doris I. Flatgard will be the firm’s second wrongful death action to stem from the peanut product Salmonella outbreak, said Fred Pritzker, founder and president of Pritzker | Olsen. The firm’s first lawsuit – which was also the first of its kind in the nation – was filed less than two weeks ago in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis for the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham, Minnesota.
Like the Almer lawsuit, the second suit will allege negligence on the part of Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) and Ohio-based King Nut Companies, a distributor of PCA products.
Both women were residing in Good Samaritan Society nursing homes in Brainerd, Minnesota, when they became infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium from eating contaminated King Nut peanut butter made by PCA and sold by King Nut Companies.
Mrs. Flatgard died January 4 at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd, 14 days after Mrs. Almer died. The King Nut peanut butter they ate was recalled January 10 by PCA, which has since expanded its Salmonella contamination product recall to include everything produced at its Blakely, Georgia, plant since January 1, 2007.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has said that Salmonella infections from PCA products might have contributed to eight deaths, including three in Minnesota. Besides Mrs. Almer and Mrs. Flatgard, the third Minnesotan to die in connection with the outbreak was Clifford Tousignant, 78, of Duluth. Tousignant also was residing in a Good Samaritan nursing home in Brainerd when he was sickened by the outbreak strain of Salmonella.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified the Georgia plant as the source of the ongoing outbreak, which began in early September and has sickened more than 529 Americans. In addition, the FDA has launched a joint criminal investigation of PCA with the U.S. Department of Justice. An FDA inspection of the Georgia plant in January found instances of the company selling product that had tested positive in the plant for Salmonella. The company retested the product and shipped it, the FDA has said.
Mrs. Flatgard was born November 21, 1921, near Sanish, North Dakota. She lived in the area around Bergen, Minnesota, before moving to Brainerd to reside at Good Samaritan’s Oakwood House.
Pritzker | Olsen has considerable experience and a reputation for success in representing survivors of foodborne illnesses (including E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Shigella). The firm is involved in virtually every national outbreak and has collected large sums on behalf of people injured or killed by adulterated food. In addition, the firm is devoted to educating the public about food safety issues and advocating for badly needed food safety legislation and increased funding for the federal, state and local agencies charged with protecting our food and enforcing food safety laws.
Fred Pritzker and members of his firm are frequent guests and commentators about food safety issues and have been interviewed by and profiled in a number of media sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and CNN.
For more information, visit http://www.pritzkerlaw.com or contact Fred Pritzker at (612) 338-0202. PritzkerLaw has offices are located at Plaza VII, Suite 2950, 45 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402
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CDC Sees Possible Link With 2007 Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak
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In Thursday’s lengthy synopsis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the current investigation into the ongoing Salmonella outbreak, there was a fleeting mention of an intriguing finding.
A Pritzker | Olsen review of the document noticed that the CDC said it is taking a closer look at a laboratory correlation made recently by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
After being the first laboratory in the country to associate the current Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak with peanut butter made at the Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), Minnesota health investigators continued to test peanut butter that came from the plant.
On January 22, they found that a recently manufactured, previously unopened container of King Nut peanut butter made at the Blakely plant by PCA yielded Salmonella serotype Tennessee with a DNA fingerprint that was indistinguishable from the strain associated with the multistate Salmonella outbreak in 2006-2007. That outbreak was caused by contaminated Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter sold by ConAgra.
Even though the Salmonella Tennessee strain is not associated with an increase in illnesses in the current outbreak (529 sickened in 43 states), the CDC is digging into it. That’s partly because the implicated processing plant in the 2006-2007 outbreak is located approximately 70 miles from PCA’s plant in Blakely. The CDC put it this way:
“A possible association between the two outbreaks warrants further investigation. The relationship of the (Salmonella) Tennessee finding to the current outbreak is being investigated further.”
Pritzker | Olsen, a national food safety law firm, handled cases for victims in the Peter Pan peanut butter Salmonella outbreak. In the current outbreak, founder and president Fred Pritzker is representing the families of two Minnesotans who died with Salmonella infections that matched the outbreak strain.
Earlier this week, Pritzker filed a wrongful death lawsuit against PCA on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham. A second suit is expected to be filed soon for the family of Doris Flatgard, 87, who died January 4. Both women were living in long-term care facilities in Brainerd that served King Nut peanut butter.
Peanut Corporation Facing Lawsuit
As the number of food companies involved in the peanut butter Salmonella recall grows, the company that produced the potentially contaminated ingredients is facing legal action from the heirs of a Minnesota woman whose death is associated with the outbreak.
Fred Pritzer initiated the Peanut Corporation of America lawsuit late last week in Hennepin County District Court by designating a trustee for the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer. Mrs. Almer, 72, was fighting cancer while living at a long-term care facility in Brainerd when she became infected with Salmonella Typhimurium after eating a piece of toast with peanut butter.
Pritzker told WCCO-TV in Minneapolis and KAAL-TV in Rochester, Minnesota, that Mrs. Almer was the "canary in the coal mine” that helped Minnesota health investigators crack the mystery of the 4-month-old outbreak before federal agencies could do it.
Pritzker said if Minnesota’s departments of health and agriculture hadn’t discovered peanut butter as the source, dozens more people could have been killed. As it stands, six deaths are associated with the outbreak, including another Minnesota, 78-year-old Clifford Tousignant.
In all, more than 470 confirmed cases of illness have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and at least 90 of the victims have been hospitalized.
Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America has idled its Blakely, Georgia, plant where it makes bulk peanut butter in containers of up to 1,700 pounds and peanut paste (roasted ground peanuts) by the tanker load. The company also has recalled all peanut butter made at the facility since August 8 and all peanut paste made there since September 26.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC are warning consumers not to eat crackers, cookies, cakes, candies, ice cream and other products containing peanut butter or peanut paste until food companies can determine which items contain potentially contaiminated ingredients from the Georgia plant.
If you or someone you know has been injured as part of the Salmonella outbreak, you could be entitled to compensation. The first step is to call Pritzker Law at (612) 338-0202. Our lawyers have experience in practically every major foodpoisoning outbreak, including the 2007 Salmonella outbreak caused by Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter.
The FDA has established a special web site to list all of the peanut butter Salmonella recalls, starting with a recall by Kellogg Company of Keebler and Austin brand snack crackers with peanut butter. Other companies have made recalls and more are expected to join the group because Peanut Corporation of America supplied more than 30 companies with ingredients that could be adulterated with Salmonella.
- McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, Tenn., has recalled Little Debbie peanut butter crackers made by Kellogg.
- Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products of suburban Chicago has recalled peanut butter cookies sold through Wal-Mart stores.
- Perry’s Ice Cream of Buffalo, N.Y., has recalled ice cream containing peanut butter.
- HyVee Inc. of West Des Moines, Iowa, has recalled Lunchbox Reeses’ Pieces cookies and Peanut Buter Reeses’ Pieces Cookies.
