A jury in Alabama has found Golden Peanut Co. liable for an accident causing an employee welder to inhale peanut dust, resulting in a pneumonia infection and subsequent lung transplant. Smith v. Golden Peanut Co., No. 14-0999 (M.D. Ala., jury verdict filed January 15, 2015). The welder was apparently inside a grain elevator when a truck began dumping peanuts into the shaft, causing the peanut dust to become “so thick in the work area of the elevator pit shaft that [the welder] could not see his hand in front of his face.” He was then diagnosed with pneumonia, required the use of an oxygen tank and became unable to work. In its verdict, the jury concluded the welder could recover $718,113.25 for his negligence claim. See Law360, January 15, 2016. Issue 591
Category Archives 11th Circuit
A Florida federal court has given final approval to the settlement agreement in a lawsuit alleging Anheuser-Busch falsely advertised its Beck's® beer as imported even though it was manufactured in St. Louis, Mo. Marty v. Anheuser-Busch Cos., LLC, No. 13-23656 (S.D. Fla., approval entered October 20, 2015). Under the agreement, Anheuser-Busch will offer refunds in several tiers, including $0.10 per individual bottle, $0.50 per six-pack and $1.75 per 20-pack, with a cap of $50 per household for those consumers with receipts and $12 for those without. The company will also add language to Beck's® packaging indicating the beer is a "Product of USA." Additional details about the settlement appear in Issue 570 of this Update. Issue 582
A Florida federal court has dismissed five putative class action claims, allowing one to continue, against Fifth Generation Inc. in a lawsuit alleging Tito’s® Handmade Vodka is not actually made by hand in “an old fashioned pot still” and thus is deceptively marketed. Pye v. Fifth Generation Inc., No. 14-0493 (N.D. Fla., order entered September 23, 2015). The court cited its May 2015 decision in Salters v. Beam addressing similar claims against Maker’s Mark®, finding that “[m]uch of the analysis here repeats what was said there.” Details about that decision appear in Issue 564 of this Update. The plaintiffs alleged that “handmade” means “made from scratch” or “in small units,” with human involvement in the process. The court disagreed, finding, “No reasonable person would understand ‘handmade’ in this context to mean literally made by hand. No reasonable person would understand ‘handmade’ in this context to mean substantial equipment was not…
Stewart Parnell, former chief executive of Peanut Corp. of America (PCA), has been sentenced to 28 years in prison following a conviction on federal conspiracy and fraud charges for his part in a Salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened more than 700. U.S. v. Parnell, No. 13-cr-0012 (M.D. Ga., Albany Div., order entered September 21, 2015). “Americans should be able to trust that the food we buy for ourselves and our families is safe,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery in a September 21, 2015, press release. “The sentences handed down today to officials associated with the Peanut Corporation of America demonstrate the consequences for those whose criminal actions threaten that trust by introducing contaminated food into the marketplace. Our prosecution is just one more example of the forceful actions that the Department of Justice, with its agency partners, takes against any individual or company who compromises…
A Florida federal court has granted preliminary approval of the settlement reached in a class action alleging that Kashi falsely advertised its products as “All Natural” despite containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Eggnatz v. The Kellogg Co., No. 12-21678 (S.D. Fla., order entered September 4, 2015). The court certified the class for settlement purposes and approved the $3.99 million settlement fund and terms of the agreement, which includes the removal of “All Natural” from Kashi products that contain the contested ingredients. The final approval hearing is set for January 2016. Additional details on the settlement appear in Issue 568 of this Update. Issue 578
A consumer has filed a lawsuit against Fifth Generation, Inc. alleging that its Tito’s Handmade Vodka® is not “handmade” as claimed on the label because it is produced through a mechanized process. Wilson v. Fifth Generation, Inc., No. 15-561 (M.D. Ala., filed August 5, 2015). The complaint joins a number of other lawsuits alleging similar facts and claims against Tito’s Handmade Vodka®. Fifth Generation has filed a motion to dismiss a similar lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court, arguing that the claims have “no basis in law or common sense” and no reasonable person could believe that a product sold nationally “was made exclusively in human hands in some backwoods, ad hoc operation, without any mechanical equipment.” Emanuello v. Fifth Generation, Inc., No. 15-11513 (D. Mass., motion filed August 5, 2015). In May and July 2015, courts dismissed lawsuits targeting “handmade” claims made on Maker’s Mark® labels, finding that the “handmade” claim “obviously cannot…
Anheuser-Busch has settled a class action alleging that the company misrepresented Beck’s® beer as brewed in Germany after a 2012 move to a St. Louis brewing facility. Marty v. Anheuser-Busch Cos., LLC, No. 13-23656 (S.D. Fla., preliminary approval entered June 23, 2015). The uncapped settlement will provide payouts to U.S. purchasers of bottles or packages of Beck’s® since May 2011, with a $50 limit for households with proofs of purchase and $12 limit for those without. Anheuser-Busch will include the phrase “Brewed in USA” or “Product of USA” on the bottles, boxes and website for at least five years. Plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive $3.5 million. Details about a similar lawsuit Anheuser-Busch settled about the origin of Kirin® beer in January 2015 appear in Issue 550 of this Update. Issue 570
Kashi Co., a unit of Kellogg Co., has agreed to pay up to $3.99 million in a class action alleging that the company advertised its products as “All Natural” despite containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Eggnatz v. The Kellogg Co., No. 12-21678 (S.D. Fla., motion for preliminary approval filed June 5, 2015). The proposed settlement agreement provides class members who can prove they purchased the products a full refund and those without proof $0.55 per package, totaling a minimum of $2 million and maximum of $3.99 million in claims. Kashi will also remove the “All Natural” label from products containing the contested ingredients and provide class members with compliance information on the Non-GMO Project Verified seals displayed on some of its products. The settlement agreement applies to the national class but excludes California residents due to a settlement in a case involving similar claims. Issue 568
A Florida federal court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Beam Suntory Inc. and Maker’s Mark Distillery falsely label their Maker’s Mark® bourbon as “handmade” because they manufacture the product using a mechanized process. Salters v. Beam Suntory, Inc., No. 14-659 (N.D. Fla., order entered May 1, 2015). The plaintiffs “have been unable to articulate a consistent, plausible explanation of what they understood ‘handmade’ to mean in this context. This is understandable; nobody could believe a bourbon marketed this widely at this volume is made entirely or predominantly by hand,” the court said. The court first found that the process of making Maker’s Mark® bourbon is handmade in the original sense of the word because it is “distinguished from the work of nature,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary definition. “In that sense all bourbon is handmade; bourbon, unlike coffee or orange juice, cannot be grown in the wild.” The court…
A consumer has filed a purported class action against Natural & Tasty LLC alleging that the company misleads consumers by labeling its Goldbaum Quinoa Crisps® as “All Natural” and free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) despite containing ingredients made from corn and soy because “almost all corn and soy grown in the United States are grown from seeds that have been genetically modified.” Slavinski v. Natural & Tasty LLC, No. 15-80451 (S.D. Fla., filed April 7, 2015). The complaint asserts that nearly all U.S. corn and soy are grown from GM seeds, “and as such, almost all corn and corn-based, as well as soy and soy-based ingredients in the United States are in fact unnatural, synthetic, artificial, and genetically modified ingredients.” The plaintiff points to several ingredients in the quinoa product as unnatural, including maltodextrin, whole grain corn flour, corn starch, and vegetable oil. While similar lawsuits have cited the reasonable…
