According to a news source, putative class actions have been filed against Strauss Group Ltd. and Tnuva Food Industries Ltd., alleging that their yogurt products, marketed as “yogurt with granola nuts” and “yogurt with granola fruit, “ respectively, mislead consumers because they contain so little nuts or fruit. Seeking NIS 72 million (US$17.8 million) from Strauss, which has a 42 percent market share, and NIS 142.5 million (US$35.3 million) from Tnuva, the petitioners reportedly claim that the products should be labeled as “flavored” with the ingredients. See Middle East North Africa Financial Network, August 12, 2012.
Category Archives Other Global
An Australian court has reportedly awarded $8 million to the family of a girl who allegedly ate a Salmonella-contaminated chicken product from a KFC restaurant and became critically ill with organ system failures, septic shock, severe brain injury, and spastic quadriplegia. Samaan v. Kentucky Fried Chicken Pty Ltd., No. 2006/20457 (NSW Sup. Ct., decided April 4, 2012). The court exhaustively explores inconsistencies in the testimony and evidence concerning the source of the chicken that allegedly caused the injury, but concludes that the KFC “Twister” product “was the only common meal to the affected family members (and no others) and it was consumed within the incubation period for Salmonella poisoning.” According to the court, many of the inconsistencies could be attributed to language and translation issues given that the parents and one child were born in Sudan and were native Arabic speakers. Other inconsistencies could be attributed to concerns over the…
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a district court ruling finding that a $97 million judgment entered by a Nicaraguan court to compensate 150 Nicaraguan agricultural workers for injuries allegedly caused by workplace exposure to a pesticide is unenforceable under Florida law. Osorio v. Dow Chem. Co., No. 10-11143 (11th Cir., decided March 25, 2011). The appellate court agreed that (i) “the Nicaraguan court lacked subject matter jurisdiction and/or personal jurisdiction over the defendants”; (ii) “the foreign judgment could not be recognized in Florida because the judgment was ‘rendered under a system which does not provide . . . procedures compatible with the requirements of due process of law’”; and (iii) “the Nicaraguan judgment could not be recognized under Florida law because doing so would be repugnant to Florida public policy.” The court declined to address whether Nicaragua “as a whole ‘does not provide impartial tribunals’” and also…
According to a news source, a Brazilian judge has ordered McDonald’s Corp. to pay one of its former franchise managers US$17,500 because he gained 65 pounds over the 12 years he worked for the company. He reportedly claimed that he was required to sample all of the restaurant’s foods everyday to ensure their quality, and he consumed the free lunches that were offered to company employees. The 32-year old man apparently convinced the court that he had to sample the food because McDonald’s hired people to make unannounced visits to its restaurants to guarantee that food, cleanliness and service standards were maintained. See Product Liability Law360, October 28, 2010.
After Chinese food safety authorities recently found milk powder laced with melamine, police have reportedly arrested three officials from the Dongyuan Dairy Factory in Qinghai province and three dairy suppliers from Hebei province. Another 41 suspects have apparently been detained. More than 225 tons of contaminated milk powder have been seized, and authorities believe it is leftover from the batches of melamine-tainted milk powder that should have been destroyed in 2008 when a massive contamination scandal sickened more than 300,000 children and was linked to the deaths of six infants. Producers added melamine to milk powder to increase its protein content, but the required protein level in dairy products has since been reduced to discourage the use of additives. According to a press report, investigators are seeking evidence that local oversight authorities may have been derelict in their duties and will punish those found responsible. Chinese consumers have reportedly lost confidence…
A Russian court has reportedly given the green light to a housing development agency to build houses on a field where thousands of rare berries and other fruits have been preserved since the 1920s. The Pavlovsk Experimental Station, located near St. Petersburg, was apparently developed to serve as an historic gene bank. Scientists over the years have deemed the facility so important that 12 reportedly starved to death during the World War II siege of Leningrad rather than eat the plants they were saving. Some 90 percent of the station’s more than 5,000 plant varieties exist nowhere else and many cannot be grown from seed. The research institute that operates the station reportedly plans to appeal the ruling to the Russian Supreme Arbitration Court. See The Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2010; TheAwl.com, August 11, 2010.
With more than 54,000 Chinese children sickened by the melamine contamination of milk and infant formula products in recent months and the government stalling over compensation of their families, some 15 lawyers have reportedly decided to file the claims of nearly 100 families in a single lawsuit against the Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co. The lawyers have not apparently set a date for its filing and intend to hold discussions with the dairy company at the heart of the alleged scandal. According to a news source, they are hoping to force a settlement by grouping a large number of claims. China’s government has ordered hospitals to order free treatment for the sick infants, but not all costs have been covered, and at least a dozen individual cases have already been filed. These suits are in a “legal limbo” because the courts have neither accepted nor refused them. See Associated Press, November…
According to a news source, nine families whose babies developed kidney problems allegedly as a result of drinking milk tainted with melamine have filed individual lawsuits against the Sanlu Group, one of China’s largest milk companies. Each child developed kidney stones, and six reportedly remain hospitalized. The families are seeking the equivalent of US$2,000 for each child as compensation. Even though the families live in different provinces, the lawsuits were all filed in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where the company is based. No judge has yet agreed to hear any of the milk cases in court, and a number of lawyers have apparently been pressured by government officials not to represent families seeking damages. See The New York Times, October 31, 2008.
According to a news source, a migrant worker from southern Guangdong province has sued Sanlu Group Co., alleging that the melamine in its baby formula caused his 11-month-old son’s kidney stones. The lawsuit, which has not yet been accepted by the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, apparently seeks US$132,000 in damages. The plaintiff’s lawyer has reportedly indicated that he is planning to sue the Dairy Association in China for failing to properly supervise its member companies. More than 10,000 children have been hospitalized in China after drinking milk contaminated with melamine, which, in some batches of milk powder, has been found at levels of 6,196 parts per million. These levels far exceed the Health Ministry’s recently adopted permissible limit of one part per million for infant formula and 2.5 parts per million for liquid milk, milk powder and foods containing more than 15 percent milk. See Findlaw.com, October 10, 2008.
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