Personal Injury Law

Peanut Corporation $12,000,000 payout could come next month

By Salmonella Lawyer

The News and Advance reports that next month a judge in Roanoke could approve $12 million in payments to people who suffered salmonella poisoning from an outbreak traced to Lynchburg-based Peanut Corp. of America.  That outbreak took place in 2008 and 2009, leading to recalls of thousands of products that contained peanut products manufactured by PCA.

The U.S. trustee overseeing PCA's bankruptcy received 123 claims from salmonella victims or surviving relatives and decided how much compensation should go to each claim.  Most of the claims are valued at less than $100,000. The largest is valued at more than $2 million, according to court documents. Those claims will be paid out of a $12 million fund established last fall.

Because bankruptcy courts do not have jurisdiction over personal-injury lawsuits, the case was moved to U.S. District Court in Roanoke earlier this year.  The court set an initial date of Aug. 18 to rule on the settlements, but on Wednesday stakeholders asked U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski to move the date forward.

Full post as published by Salmonella Blog on June 17, 2010 (boomark / email).