Personal Injury Law

Chicago Lawyer Files Peanut Butter Case

Janet Rausa Fuller of the Chicago Sun Times reports that an Illinois family has filed a lawsuit in Cook County for illness related to tainted Peter Pan peanut butter. The case was filed by Chicago lawyers Hurley McKenna & Mertz, P.C. The suit alleges that the family of four became violently ill after eating an after school snack of peanut butter sandwiches on February 1, 2007.

Deverne Staples thought nothing of the peanut butter sandwiches she fixed for herself and her three kids as an after-school snack on Feb. 1.

Until the next day.

That's when Ryan McCollum, her 10-year-old son, started "throwing up violently," the South Shore woman said.

Nine-year-old Rose Staples was next to get sick, followed the next day by Jonathan Staples, 13, and Staples, 36, who spent several hours in the emergency room at the University of Chicago Hospitals on Feb. 4 after experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, cramps and high fever.

"I did not know what was happening," said Staples, whose kids eat peanut butter at least three times a week. "I had never experienced anything like that before. I knew that it had to be more than just a normal flu."

"I want people to know how serious food poisoning can be," Staples said. "It is something that shouldn't be taken lightly."

The suit was filed against Omaha, Nebraska based Con-Agra foods.

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog on February 21, 2007 (boomark / email).