Food Poisoning Law Firm
Pritzker Olsen Law Firm Food Safety Blog

Pritzker Olsen attorneys have appeared on CBS News, Fox news, and numerous local television stations throughout the country. They have recovered millions for victims of food poisoning outbreaks. To contact our law firm, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our free consultation form.

Salmonella Peanut Butter Lawsuit Settlement

Our law firm obtained a settlement for several victims of the Salmonella outbreak linked to Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) peanuts and three families who lost loved ones in the outbreak.  The firm represented the families of more people killed in the PCA outbreak than any other law firm in the United States.

Shortly after being linked to the outbreak,  PCA filed for bankruptcy, along with its subsidiaries, Plainview Peanut Co. LLC and Tidewater Blanching Co. LLC..

In October of 2009, a $12 million fund to pay victims of the Peanut Corp. of America Salmonella outbreak was established by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge William E. Anderson. At the time, there were 175 claims for illnesses. Attorney Fred Pritzker was one of a handful of attorneys representing victims and their families.

Yesterday, Norman K. Moon, United States District Judge in the Western District of Virginia, approved settlement amounts "in their entirety" for the surviving victims and the families of those that died and ordered the bankruptcy trustee to make distributions.

 

Peanut Corporation of America Goes Bankrupt

A lawyer representing Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) informed PritzkerOlsen Attorneys Friday that the Virginia-based peanut processor is going out of business via bankruptcy liquidation.
PritzkerOlsen represents clients in PCA's massive Salmonella outbreak, including the families of two Minnesota woman who died after eating contaminated peanut butter at assisted living centers in Brainerd.
Firm founder and president Fred Pritzker told The Associated Press that the development could delay justice for hundreds of people sickened in the national food poisoning scare. The immediate consequence could put lawsuits on hold, but Pritzker said he will attempt to fight through any blockades.

"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,'' Pritzker told the AP.

In a wrongful death lawsuit that Pritzker has filed on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, one of the Salmonella victims, the two current respondents are PCA and Ohio-based King Nut Companies, distributor of peanut butter made at PCA's contaminated plant in Blakely, Georgia.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 637 people in 44 states have been sickened by peanut butter and peanut paste made by PCA. Much of the product was sold as ingredients to food manufacturers, resulting in more than 2,000 consumer recalls of peanut-containing products across the country.
PCA last month closed its Georgia plant. This week, after signs of Salmonella bacteria were found at PCA's plant in Plainview, Texas, that facility was shut down. On Friday, an inspection by Texas health investigators led to a recall of all products ever made at the plant.
They found rodents, feces and feathers in a crawl space. The plant's air-handling system was sucking debris from the crawl space into a peanut processing area.
We welcome your comments. What do you think of PCA's bankruptcy filing?

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$$$$ Swirled in Company Salmonella E-mails

The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the Committee on Energy and Commerce released copies Wednesday of internal company e-mails regarding Salmonella issues at the Blakely, Georgia, plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).
Federal authorities have linked peanut butter and peanut paste made at the plant to a Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 600 people in 44 states and may have caused nine deaths.
The e-mails were released the same day that two executives at Virginia-based PCA invoked their rights against self-incrimination in refusing to testify before the subcommittee. The executives were Chief Executive Stewart Parnell and Georgia Plant Manager Sammy Lightsey.
Cornell University food safety professor Joseph Hotchkiss told The Associated Press that what he saw in the e-mails "might be interpreted as reckless disregard for the health of the consuming public.'' He said the documents show "abundant concern for PCA but little regard for the health and well-being of the people.''
On Sept. 29, 2008, for example, Lightsey e-mailed Parnell to note a positive test result for Salmonella in a lot of 441 cases of peanut granules produced four days earlier. They were being retested, but results weren't expected for another four days. Parnell responded: "We need to discuss this... the time lapse, besides the cost is costing us huge $$$$$ and causing obviously a huge lapse in time from the time we pick up peanuts until the time we can invoice.''
An e-mail from Lightsey to Parnell on Aug. 11 talked about a previous positive test result for Salmonella in products at the Blakely plant. Another firm retested the products and when they were deemed "clean'' on Aug. 21,' Parnell wrote an e-mail the same day saying, "Okay, let's turn them loose then.''
Despite the obvious dealings with Salmonella in 2008, Parnell wrote an e-mail on Jan. 12, 2009, that was circulated widely to company personnel. "As you probably know, we send hourly PB samples to an independent lab to test for Salmonella during production of peanut butter, and we have never found any Salmonella at all.''
By then, Minnesota health officials had taken samples of peanut butter produced by PCA and found Salmonella bacteria that was a genetic match to the outbreak strain. But Parnell wrote in his e-mail that the open container of peanut butter must have been cross-contaminated somewhere else, long after leaving the plant.
"Don't worry,'' the e-mail said. "We are well positioned to deal with this event no matter what happens... we were not the cause of this outbreak.''

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Food Poisoning Lawyer Fred Pritzker has appeared on national television and has been quoted by national publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and Lawyers USA. He has been named a "Super Lawyer" by Law and Politics magazine. He is also listed in the current edition of The Best Lawyers in America. To contact Fred Pritzker about a food poisoning lawsuit or food safety advocacy, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit the firm's free consultation form.

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