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China court to hear first contaminated milk lawsuit

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Xinhua District Court in China Wednesdady accepted the first lawsuit seeking damages against a dairy company in connection with the contaminated milk scandal. The lawsuit, which was brought by the family of one of the children who fell ill last year, seeks more than USD $4,500 from the now-bankrupt Sanlu Group. The Xinhua District Court is the first court to accept a lawsuit on the scandal since the Chinese courts announced that earlier this month that they would allow such suits. Prior to the announcement the Chinese government had sponsored a compensation plan that paid families between USD $290 and $29,000. Two people were sentenced to death in January for their roles in the scandal that killed six children and sickened nearly 300,000 others. Earlier that month, lawyers for the families of 213 Chinese children sickened or killed by the contaminated milk petitioned the Supreme People's Court to hear a class action lawsuit against 22 dairy companies involved in the contamination, seeking more than $5 million in damages. In January, police in China detained five parents of children who became sick after drinking melamine-tainted milk, preventing the parents from participating in a news conference.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 25, 2009 (boomark / email).