Personal Injury Law

First Lawsuit Filed in China Over Infant's Melamine Milk Death

By Bill Marler, Esq.

I am humbled to see Chinese lawyers standing up for the victims of this melamine tragedy despite being pressured to walk away.

The family of a baby whose death has been blamed on toxic milk filed suit against one of China's largest dairies, while another dairy ensnared in the scandal said it was a victim of unscrupulous subcontractors. The lawsuit filed Monday against Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co. was over the May 1 death of 6-month-old Yi Kaixuan in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, the family's lawyer said. It is the first to be filed over a child who died from drinking the tainted milk and asks for almost US$160,000 in damages.

The Yi family's lawyer, Dong Junming, said he turned the lawsuit in at Lanzhou's No. 2 Intermediate People's Court where clerks told him they would notify him Tuesday as to whether it would be accepted. At least two other lawsuits have been filed against Sanlu - the company at the center of the uproar - in recent weeks by parents of children suffering from kidney stones. It is not clear if courts will allow these suits to progress.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on October 14, 2008 (boomark / email).