$12M Victims Fund Set In Peanut Product Outbreak
A $12 million fund to pay victims of the Peanut Corp. of America Salmonella outbreak has been established by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge William E. Anderson.
There are currently 175 claims for illnesses and the fund will be parsed according to the severity of a person's illness.
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The News and Advance newspaper of Lynchburg, Virginia, the home of PCA, attended the hearing Thursday and said the money will be provided by two Hartford Insurance divisions and the fund will be administered by Roy Creasy, bankruptcy trustee for Western Virginia.
The establishment of the fund is a major step toward settling bankruptcy claims against PCA, which went out of business after Salmonella Typhimurium caused by its Blakely, Georgia, manufacturing plant killed nine people and sickened more than 700 others in 46 states. The outbreak began a year ago, peaked in December and lasted through January.
National food safety law firm Prtizker Olsen Attorneys is representing victims of the outbreak, including the families of three women who died. For more information about filing a claim, contact our office at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online information and contact form to receive a free case consultation.
The special victims' fund is off limits to other creditors. Only people who were victims of the outbreak will have access to it and Creasy said the upcoming distribution won't bar victims from suing re-manufacturers such as King Nut Companies and Kellogg's -- who used tainted peanuts from PCA to make peanut butter and snack crackers.
All together, nearly 4,000 other food companies who used PCA peanut ingredients to make consumer food products issued recalls after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked the outbreak to PCA's Georgia plant.
A national announcement of the $12 million PCA victims' fund will be made in a legal notice to be published in USA Today.
