Food Poisoning Law Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : PritzkerLaw : Food Safety, Outbreaks & Recalls

PritzkerOlsen, P.A., a national Salmonella litigation 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.

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Peanut Corporation of America apparently ignored an order from theTexas Department of State Health Services to recall all the products ever made at its plant in Plainview, Texas.

That's what the state agency said in a press release Friday. Health officials in that state are stepping in to execute the product recall on their own. The action will involve going through the company's customer lists and notifying those entities of the recall.

The recall was ordered Feb. 12, coinciding roughly with the company's decision to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy/liquidation and go out of business. The press release said health officials never got a response from the company regarding the recall.

David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of Health Services, is notifying PCA Chief Executive Officer Parnell Stewart that the agency will seek payment from the company for the cost of doing the recall.

PCA has been blamed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causing a 44-state outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium that has sickened more than 654 people and killed nine. PCA's plant in Blakely, Georgia, shipped peanut butter and other peanut products that contained the bacteria.

Fred Pritzker, founder and president of national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, has filed a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against PCA and King Nut Companies, a distributor of PCA's peanut butter. PritzkerOlsen represents peanut butter Salmonella clients from around the country, including the families of three women who died in the outbreak.

To contact our firm, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or complete a free case consultation form.  

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The U.S. Trustee has appointed a trustee in the bankruptcy/liquidation of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), the company responsible for a nationwide Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 642 people and killed nine.

The trustee is Ron Creasy of Roanoke, Va. He told Reuters news agency that he is currently focused on securing the company's facilities and getting his arms around its financial accounts. Soon, he said, he'll start to evaluate insurance claims. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings will take place in the Western District of Virginia.

"We're going to have to work out the insurance claims and insurance proceeds for all the people that are injured and what other parties might try to make claims against the company,'' Creasy told Reuters.

PCA is the defendant in apeanut butter wrongful death lawsuit filed byPritzkerOlsen Attorneys, a national food safety firm that represents clients including the families of three women who died in the outbreak. The firm is representing victims of the outbreak nationwide and one of our clients has testified before a panel in Congress on the need for greater food safety regulation.

To contact a peanut butter Salmonella lawyer at the firm call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit a free Salmonella consultation form.

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The main company responsible for a nationwide Salmonella outbreak that has killed nine people and sickened more than 636 others in 44 states has closed its doors for good -- filing for liquidation Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Virginia.

The immediate affect on victims of the food poisoning tsunami is unclear, but is not favorable and is likely to create even more public outrage. Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) operated bacteria-plagued plants in Blakely, Georgia, and Plainview, Texas, that were essentially shut down by state and federal health officials who found unsafe conditions.

Fred Pritzker, president of national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, told The Associated Press that bankruptcy proceedings could delay justice for many people who have suffered. PritzkerOlsen's clients in the outbreak include the families of two Minnesota women who died after eating contaminated peanut butter at assisted living centers in Brainerd, Minnesota.

In a quote that moved on AP's national wire, Pritzker said: "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.''

In a Chapter 7 Bankrupty proceeding, a company liquidates and distributes its assets to creditors. While the process could postpone court action on civil suits, Pritzker will fight to push the Salmonella litigation forward. He also has sued King Nut Companies, a distributor of PCA peanut butter.

PCA shut down its Georgia plant last month after health investigators linked its peanut butter and peanut paste to the Salmonella outbreak. The move triggered more than 2,000 consumer recalls of peanut-containing products around the country. That's because PCA made bulk peanut butter and peanut paste by the tanker load that was sold to other food manufacturers as ingredients.

Many more consumer product recalls are expected to flow from this week's shut down of PCA's Texas plant. All products ever made at that plant were recalled after Texas inspectors found rodents, feces and feathers in a crawl space.. The plant's air-handling system sucked debris from the crawl space into an area where peanuts were processed.

We welcome your comments. What do you think of Peanut Corporation of America's bankruptcy filing?

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