Boar’s Head has raised a courtroom beef with a New York widow whose husband died this summer season after consuming tainted liverwurst — and her high-profile legal professional believes the deli meat large is “sending a message” to him, The Put up has discovered.
Kathleen Hamilton of Hicksville, LI, slapped Boar’s Head with lawsuit in October in Brooklyn federal courtroom, however now the corporate is requesting {that a} choose transfer the case to Virginia the place Boar’s Head is defending itself in opposition to a slew of wrongful loss of life lawsuits, in line with a Dec. 31 submitting.
Hamilton’s husband of 55 years, Robert Hamilton, was rushed to Nassau College Medical Middle on July 12 with flu-like signs together with abdomen pains, diarrhea and a excessive fever.
He spent the following six days within the ICU earlier than he handed away at age 73.
The state Well being Division confirmed his loss of life was linked to the Boar’s Head listeria outbreak, in line with the grievance.
“This poor lady lost her husband and Boar’s Head wants to drag her down to Virginia,” mentioned Hamilton’s lawyer, Invoice Marler, a distinguished meals security legal professional who opposed the request in a courtroom submitting final week.
The star litigator, who was featured within the Netflix documentary “’Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food,” pointed to the truth that Boar’s Head filed its request to maneuver the case to Virginia throughout the center of the vacations.
“When you file stuff on on New Years or Christmas Eve, you are doing it to send a message,” Marler mentioned.
A spokesperson for Boar’s Head mentioned in an announcement, “While we do not comment on the substance of ongoing litigation, the request to move the case is simply procedural, and we intend to address it as part of the process.”
Boar’s Head needs to consolidate its circumstances in Virginia below the identical choose for the “most efficient and practical outcome,” the corporate mentioned in courtroom filings.
Hamilton is searching for $20 million for each punitive and compensatory damages, in line with the grievance.
Marler mentioned Boar’s Head could also be notably “pissed off” at him as a result of he has been outspoken about advocating for legal prices in opposition to Boar’s Head and congressional hearings concerning the outbreak.
Altering the venue to Virginia “imposes an undue hardship” on the widow and is “unnecessarily cruel under the circumstances,” in line with the widow’s courtroom submitting.
“Boar’s Head is saying these nice things publicly,” Marler mentioned, “but behind the scenes they are filing motions on New Year’s Eve and dragging a widow to Virginia.”
He’s representing 4 different households who misplaced their family members to listeria after consuming Boar’s Head product and and 5 purchasers who turned in poor health.
The Sarasota, Fla.-based firm argued that litigating the Hamilton case in New York “would also impose duplicative burden on [Boar’s Head] in requiring it to defend a substantially similar action in two venues simultaneously,” including that “the filing … in New York should not be afforded deference.”
The Boar’s Head argument is a “tough sell,” in line with Richard Dollinger, a retired member of the New York courtroom of claims who just isn’t concerned within the case.
“The plaintiff’s case is exclusively based in New York,” together with all the witnesses — the Hamilton’s buddies, kinfolk, neighbors, the treating physicians and nurses — who will testify to the Hamilton’s ache and struggling, Dollinger mentioned.
The widow can be financially chargeable for bringing all of those witnesses to Virginia, say authorized consultants.
“The courts look at the convenience of the witnesses and the relative financial power of the two parties,” Dollinger added. “It seems to me that both of those factors weigh in favor of keeping the case in New York.”
Boar’s Head recalled 7.2 million kilos of probably tainted meat in July after folks had been falling in poor health throughout the nation.
In whole, 10 folks died from the listeria outbreak — together with Günter Morgenstein, a Holocaust survivor who died in July in Newport Information, Va. – and no less than 51 folks had been sickened by the lethal micro organism.
Federal inspectors discovered unsanitary situations at Boar’s Head Jarrat, Va. plant – which was flagged because the supply of the outbreak – the place mildew was rising on the partitions and ceiling, condensation dripped onto the meals, bugs had been “flying around the room,” and “pools of blood” had been allowed to collect on the ground.
The stunning inspection stories spanned greater than a 12 months – and federal data launched this week from the US Agriculture Division paint a disturbing image of Boar’s Head’s different services as effectively.
Processing crops in New Fortress, Ind., Forrest Metropolis, Ark. and Petersburg, Va. had been discovered to have related issues because the Jarratt plant over the previous six years, with one inspector describing a room on the Indiana plant as “general filth,” in line with the stories.
The billion greenback enterprise mentioned in an announcement that the violations documented “do not meet our high standards.”
The Jarratt facility was closed this summer season and the corporate issued an announcement afterwards saying that the outbreak “is a dark moment in our company’s history.”
“Since last year’s recall, the company has implemented enhanced food safety interventions and programs across the entire organization that are elevating Boar’s Head to an industry-leading food safety standard,” a Boar’s Head spokesperson mentioned in an announcement.
