At least one person has died and 38 others fell ill from E.coli linked to organic baby carrots.
The outbreaks started on Sept. 6 with more sprouting up until Oct. 28 in 18 states, though numbers may be higher and consumers in other states may also be affected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Sunday. Minnesota, New York and Washington were the states with the most outbreaks as of Monday morning.
Following investigations, it was concluded that Grimmway Farms, a Bakersfield, California, company that is the one of the largest producers of organic carrots in the world, was the supplier of the carrots people consumed before they got sick.
Since the outbreaks, the company has initiated a recall for various brands and sizes of its organic products. This includes organic baby carrots with best-use dates ranging from Sept. 11 to Nov. 12 and products sold from Aug. 14 to Oct. 23. These products could have been sold at retailers such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Target and/or Publix.
For a full list of affected produce and retailers, please visit the Food and Drug Administration website.
If you believe you may have the recalled products in your fridge, it is important to discard them immediately and thoroughly wash any items they may have come into contact with.
Products Liability Litigation
Manufacturers can be found liable if a plaintiff’s attorney can adequately prove that flaws in either the product’s design, manufacturing or marketing resulted in their client’s injuries or death. In Florida, compensation for injuries as a result of defective products is based on strict liability, negligence and breach of warranty.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys have been recognized nationally for their litigation within this practice area for nearly 50 years. In the past, the firm handled injuries and deaths resulting from products such as children’s toys, defective medical devices, car manufacturing, furniture and defective weapons.
Leesfield & Partners has seen an uptick in drop-fire gun injury cases, a practice area involving an accidental firing of a weapon when it hits a hard surface. A previous case handled by the firm includes a person who was severely injured when a handgun malfunctioned. In mediation, Leesfield & Partners’ expert recreated the conditions in which our client was injured to replicate the issue so as to demonstrate the defect to the defendants. The case was settled before trial for seven figures.
Another case handled by the firm involving the devastating death of a minor in a gun incident resulted in a $3 million award for the family against the gun manufacturer.
When litigating these types of cases, it is important to preserve the product at the center of the incident and obtain documents such as instructions from the manufacturer or medical records detailing a client’s injuries.
Products Liability Cases at Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners attorneys have obtained record-setting verdicts in products liability cases since 1976. Some of these cases have resulted in industry-wide change as was the case following litigation for a baby’s suffocation death in a highchair. In that instance, the child suffocated after “submarining” because the manufacturer failed to warn the parents that the tray may not be used to restrain a child. This hazard was one that was well-known throughout the industry at the time of the child’s death.
In a $19.8 million lawsuit, Leesfield & Partners attorneys proved at trial that a defect with a motorcycle kickstand was to blame for a tragic crash that caused severe and permanent injuries to the firm’s 27-year-old client. The young man was riding on his Honda motorcycle when it spun out of control and crashed, leaving him a high-level quadriplegic. This was one of the largest recoveries in a products liability case in the country at the time.
Leesfield & Partners has also gone head-to-head with manufacturers such as Kawasaki and Yamaha various times, resulting in favorable outcomes for our injured clients.
In another case surrounding a juvenile product, Leesfield & Partners obtained a $1.1 million settlement for the family of a 4-month-old baby who suffocated due to a design defect with the product.
Attorneys with the firm also secured a $2.5 million settlement amount for the family of a man with muscular dystrophy, a genetic disease involving the deterioration of muscles over time. The man in that case died after his ventilator malfunctioned from a power outage in the middle of the night. The backup battery for the ventilator lasted less than 10 minutes after the outage and alarms, meant to alert caregivers of an issue, failed to go off. Even though there were numerous other complaints to the manufacturer regarding this device that spanned a decade, neither the manufacturer nor the respiratory company took the necessary steps to address the issue or alert patients’ families.
Concerning the death of an 8-month-old who died after a child restraint displayed the product installed in the front seat, Leesfield & Partners secured a confidential settlement for the grieving parents. The child in that case was killed when the airbag deployed.
Attorneys with the firm have also previously secured a $17.5 million settlement for a Central Florida family whose 2-year-old was killed in a case of tip-over furniture. Other cases handled by the firm include wrongful death cases for gun drop-fires, defective ATV and motorcycle cases, and medical devices.
If you, or a loved one, was injured as the result of a manufacturing defect, don’t wait. Call a Leesfield & Partners attorney today at 800-836-6400.