Fifth Circuit Rejects Claim That Negligent Listeria Testing Caused False Positive Report
In an unpublished opinion, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a biscuit maker’s claim that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) negligent testing of its product for Listeria monocytogenes resulted in a false positive report that caused it to lose its contract with a company that supplied 7-Eleven convenience stores with biscuit sandwiches. Lone Star Bakery, Inc. v. U.S., No. 09-50374 (5th Cir., decided November 17, 2009). The litigation arose under the Federal Tort Claims Act following a 2002 Listeria contamination incident for which the biscuit maker was initially blamed, but later cleared of any responsibility. The company sought $2.9 million in damages from the FDA.
According to the court, which affirmed a grant of the FDA’s summary judgment motion, while the company submitted evidence showing “several instances where the FDA inspectors failed to follow agency collection and testing protocol,” its evidence was “devoid of any claim that these failures caused the biscuit samples to test falsely positive for Listeria monocytogenes.” The court acknowledged that the evidence might raise an inference that FDA breached its legal duty, but determined it was insufficient to raise a fact issue as to proximate causation, an “essential element of [the company’s] cause of action.
