SEATTLE, WA – Marler Clark filed a lawsuit today against ConAgra, whose Banquet and store-brand pot pies were identified as the source of a nation-wide Salmonella outbreak that has caused at least 152 confirmed cases of Salmonellosis and 20 hospitalizations. The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court for the State of Minnesota on behalf of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, residents Joshua and Amy Reinert and their daughter, Isabelle, who will be two years old in December.
According to the lawsuit, Isabelle fell ill on August 18, 2007, experiencing diarrhea and fever, with her symptoms worsening quickly. At one point during her illness, Isabelle was filing 5 or 6 diapers an hour with diarrhea. She had a febrile seizure and was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was treated in the ER on August 19. Isabelle received multiple hours of IV antibiotics and IV fluids, and was required to return to the hospital on August 20 and 21st for outpatient treatment with roughly 8 hours per day of IV antibiotics and IV fluids. She has since returned home.
“ConAgra announced that it had been contacted about the outbreak by health officials on October 9th, but did not issue a recall or ask stores to pull the product off shelves until today,” said William Marler, attorney for the Reinert family. “That’s unconscionable. Especially when there are parents out there who may not have heard about the outbreak and who are still feeding these products to their kids.”
Marler’s firm, Marler Clark (www.marlerclark.com), has represented thousands of victims of foodborne illness outbreaks, including victims of the recent peanut butter Salmonella outbreak, which was also traced back to ConAgra products and victims of a 2002 E. coli outbreak that was traced to the consumption of ConAgra ground beef. He comments on foodborne illness outbreaks and litigation on his blog – www.marlerblog.com.
More about the ConAgra pot pie Salmonella outbreak can be found in the Case News area of this site.