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Wrongful Death Suit Filed Against Peanut Corp.
Court Watch |
2009/02/02 09:32
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The sudden and unexpected death of a Minnesota woman who fell victim to a nationwide Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak has prompted a wrongful death lawsuit against Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) -- a maker of bulk peanut butter and peanut paste.
Fred Pritzker, founder and president of national food safety law firm Pritzker | Olsen, P.A., filed the complaint Monday in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis for the heirs and of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham, Minnesota: Jeffrey Almer as trustee of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer v. Peanut Corporation of America, a Virginia business entity and King Nut Companies, an Ohio business entity.
King Nut Companies is an Ohio-based firm that allegedly distributed the contaminated peanut butter that came out of PCA's plant in Blakely, Georgia, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, the product was delivered to a nursing home in Brainerd, Minnesota, where Mrs. Almer was temporarily residing.
The complaint alleges that her death on December 21 was a direct result of consuming peanut butter that contained the same genetic strain of Salmonella that has sickened more than 500 other people in 43 states. On January 13, the FDA announced that PCA initiated a recall that included the product that had been served to Mrs. Almer.
This is a very large and significant recall, Pritzker said. It points to a number of vulnerabilities in our food safety system that require legislation and funding to correct. Consumers should feel concerned and demand a significant overhaul.
The complaint alleges negligence on behalf of PCA and King Nut for failure to train and properly supervise peanut butter production workers and other employees; failure to safely produce, store and transport its products; failure to maintain sanitary conditions during and after production; failure to prevent cross-contamination and failure to properly test its products, as well as other acts of negligence.
The complaint also alleges that PCA and King Nut are negligent per se for failing to comply with Minn. Stat. Chapter 31 and 21 USC Sec. 331.
The complaint also makes a claim for damages under the doctrine of strict liability.
Pritzker said Mrs. Almer was the canary in a coal mine whose death helped lead health investigators to the plant in South Georgia. Now federal officials view the PCA plant as the outbreak's lone, known source.
According to the complaint, Mrs. Almer's children were notified January 6 that she died with a Salmonella infection. Days later, the Minnesota departments of health and agriculture traced the problem to a five-pound pail of King Nut creamy peanut butter that had been in use at the nursing home.
Pritzker said grieving family members were angered to learn that the peanut butter served to Mrs. Almer contained the same deadly pathogen associated with hundreds of Salmonella infections since mid-September.
Mrs. Almer, who grew up in New York Mills, Minnesota, still owned a bowling alley in Wadena. She had survived two bouts with cancer in recent years and was cancer free when she was sickened with Salmonella. Just before she became ill, family members were planning to take her out of the nursing home. Instead, she became so sick from the bacteria that she was taken to a hospital, where she died.
Pritzker | Olsen has considerable experience and a reputation for success in representing survivors of foodborne illnesses (including E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Shigella). The firm is involved in virtually every national outbreak and has collected large sums on behalf of people injured or killed by adulterated food. In addition, the firm is devoted to educating the public about food safety issues and advocating for badly needed food safety legislation and increased funding for the federal, state and local agencies charged with protecting our food and enforcing food safety laws.
Pritzker and members of his firm are frequent guests and commentators about food safety issues and have been interviewed by and profiled in a number of media sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNN. |
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KBR Halliburton Accused in Class Action
Attorney Career |
2009/01/28 09:12
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KBR, Kellogg Brown amp; Root and Halliburton knowingly exposed U.S. troops to water contaminated by sewage and made soldiers sick by burning toxic waste unsafely, a class action claims in Montgomery County Court. The class claims that when KBR found it was giving troops contaminated water, it told its water quality specialist to concern himself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel.
The class claims KBR earned $4.8 billion in Iraq in 2006 - 45% of the company's revenue that year - and that the defendants acted egregiously merely to make more money for themselves.
The complaint cites a 2008 report from the Defense Department's Inspector General that confirmed that KBR supplied unsafe water to U.S. troops. It cites a 2006 report from KBR itself that found KBR's failure to disinfect water caused an unknown population to be exposed to potentially harmful water for an undetermined period of time, and that the deficiencies of the camp where the event occurred is not exclusive to that camp, meaning that countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted.
They claim KBR's report admitted that the company kept little or no documentation on its water safety, standards or procedures.
The complaint states: Former KBT employees and water quality specialist Ben Carter and Ken May told Halliburton Watch that KBR knowingly exposed troops and civilians to contaminated water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Ben Carter, a water quality specialist who worked for KBR at Junction city, testified that he tested water and found it was polluted with sewage and other contamination and that it was not being chlorinated. He then treated the tanks for the KBR employees and told company managers the military should be alerted so they could treat their tanks as well. Carter told the media that he was ordered by his KBR supervisor to concern himself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel. KBR was supposed to test the water three times daily to confirm safety but, according to Carter, such testing never occurred.
The class seeks medical monitoring and punitive damages for negligence, breach of duty, willful and wanton conduct, and other charges. They are represented by William O'Neil with Burke O'Neil of Washington, D.C. |
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Testing firm sues NYC to lift license suspensions
Attorney Career |
2009/01/27 15:15
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| A company accused of faking tests on concrete and steel at the new Yankee Stadium, the Freedom Tower and over 100 other projects is suing New York City to lift suspensions of their licenses.pTestwell Inc. asserts in state Supreme Court papers that the city suspended its licenses unlawfully in October after the company was indicted on enterprise corruption charges. Testwell says the charges have not been proven./ppTestwell says an administrative law judge recommended lifting the suspensions but last week the city rejected that recommendation./ppThe city Law Department says it is reviewing Testwell's court papers. The city has been attempting to retest concrete and steel handled by Testwell on some buildings, although prosecutors say no weaknesses have been found. /p |
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FBI: Long Island investment firm boss surrenders
Legal Center |
2009/01/26 15:15
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| The owner of a Long Island investment firm accused of cheating people out of more than $100 million is expected to appear in court Tuesday.pFBI spokesman Jim Margolin says Nicholas Cosmo surrendered at a U.S. Postal Inspection Service office in Hicksville on Monday night./ppCosmo runs Agape World Inc. in Hauppauge (HAW'-pawg). He's accused of taking in $300 million from investors and cheating them out of about $140 million./ppA letter hanging in Cosmo's office window denies there was any Ponzi scheme, the type of fraud Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf) is accused of committing. A Ponzi, or pyramid, scheme promises unusually high returns and pays early investors with money from later investors./ppDefense attorneys at the Herrick Feinstein law firm haven't returned telephone calls seeking comment. /p |
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Four Potter Anderson Attorneys Recognized in The International Who's Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers 2009
Uncategorized |
2009/01/08 14:24
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Attorneys of the law firm of Potter Anderson amp; Corroon LLP have been selected as among the top corporate governance lawyers in the country by Law Business Research Limited.nbsp; Partners Michael D. Goldman, Michael A. Pittenger and Donald J. Wolfe Jr. and of counsel Robert K.nbsp; Payson, were selected for the Who’s Who Legal publication, The International Who’s Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers.nbsp; The attorneys are members of the firm’s Corporate Group.
The publication identifies private practice lawyers with a proven track record in providing corporate governance advise to boards of directors and substantial privately held entities in connection with corporate disclosure governance and policy issues, as well as dealing with new laws, regulations, stock exchange rules and governance principles.
Research is conducted by Law Business Research Limited, a publisher of research, analysis and reporting on international business law and policy and the business of international law. In 2004, Law Business Research Limited became the official research partner of the International Bar Association, in 2006 it won the Queen's Award for Enterprise and in 2008 it became the strategic research partner of the American Bar Association's Section of International Law. |
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John Q. Kelly on Natalee Holloway Case - Fox News
Attorney Career |
2009/01/05 14:18
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a href=http://www.kellygrouppc.comNatalie Holloway /aAttorney John Q. Kelly
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And, finally, the Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos, responds. John Q. Kelly, the Holloway family attorney, has been trying to get Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos on the phone. Mos did leave him a rather nasty voicemail the other day. But now Hans Mos has responded to a letter from Kelly.
So what did Mos say in this response? a href=http://www.kellygrouppc.comJohn Q. Kelly/a joins us. John, what did he say?
a href=http://www.kellygrouppc.comJOHN Q. KELLY, HOLLOWAY FAMILY ATTORNEY/a: It's basically two-fold. One is that Joran [van der Sloot] has given different versions of the same event, so they can't be bothered with it.
And, two, they have no interest in any evidence or information that might assist him at this point.
VAN SUSTEREN: That is cute. The key is if you want to commit a crime, go to Aruba and tell three stories, because they will not investigate you and they won't look to corroborate. That's lesson number one. That's good advice.
You ask to have him arrested. What happens about that?
KELLY: He said we have no basis for it. This is the first time we have had any information that has been corroborated. He says he father was engaged in a cover-up, and it turns out that the chief of police and Paulus [van der Sloot], it has been confirmed that they hindered the prosecution. We have taped conversations that confirmed the boys talking about hoping that Natalee, or fearing that she may be alive. There are cell phone pings as to locations of Joran down by the fisherman's hut. There are all kinds of things independently that confirm what Joran is saying now, and they just won't listen.
VAN SUSTEREN: I know that he doesn't like us here at On the Record. And I will make this promise tonight-we will stop being the monkey on his back if he does any investigation at all.
But I can tell you one thing. We have learned new information that a member of the Dutch parliament, Hero Brinkman, he is about to raise holy hell on Hans Mos. He is going down to Aruba in early January.
And if Hans Mos does not like us, wait until he gets a hold of this member of parliament, because he says that Aruba is corrupt as hell I think were his words, not mine.
KELLY: Greta, can I take you to the woodshed on one thing? I think people have to understand that even thought it was five months before your aired your interview with Joran that Hans Mos was made aware of it and the substance of it in great detail almost immediately, and he had no interest in following.
span style=font-weight: boldRead the entire interview at Fox News/span - a href=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,465291,00.htmlClick Here/a |
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