Our Salmonella Food Poisoning Lawyers Review the Evidence that Peanut Corporation of America, It's Blakely Georgia and Plainview Texas Plant, and PCA Operator, Stewart Parnell Engaged in Intentional, Fraudulent and Malicious Acts in Conscious Disregard of Human Life and Health by "Letting Loose" Salmonella Contaminated Peanut Products ino the Chain of Commerce Resulting in 9 Confirmed Deaths and Hundreds of Food Poisoning Illnesses.
Our Salmonella lawyers have published widely on the Peanut Corporation of America salmonellosis outbreak, and provide one of these articles below, describing the intentional misconduct of PCA and its operator, Stewart Parnell, which we contend was in conscious disregard of the likelihood that peanut butter products contaminated with salmonella at the PCA Blakely Georgia and Plainview Texas plant would result in the illnesses and deaths of consumers. On a separate page our salmonella food poisoning attorneys have provided a "Peanut Corporation of America FDA Product Recall List," to demonstrate the breadth of the products containing ingredients supplied from Peanut Corporation of America, constituting the largest product recall in United States history. On another page of this site we reprint an article discussing the Peanut Corporation of America Bankruptcy and why our salmonella lawyers are confident that there will be ample insurance and assets available to those in the chain of commerce to pay for the compensatory damages of those who suffered illness and to compensate the families who lost a loved one to this salmonella outbreak. We make every effort to summarize and update out information from our investigation on our main "Salmonella Food Poisoning" page. If you suffered from salmonella poisoning or if you lost a loved one to the salmonella outbreak, our Salmonella food poisoning lawyers invite you to contact us for a free consultation. Simply fill out the "Salmonella Case Evaluation Request" and one of our food poisoning attorneys will contact you to discuss your case. Our case consultations are free of charge and without obligation.
Salmonella Food Poisoning Lawyers Describe Evidence That Peanut Corporation and Parnell Engaged in Intentional, Dishonest and Fraudulent Acts, Distributing Salmonella Contaminated Peanut Butter Products in Chain of Commerce to Companies Incorporating the Peanuts and Peanut Butter Paste in 2000 Products Now the Subject of the Largest Food Poisoning Recall in U.S. History.
Our salmonella lawyers' preliminary review of the available information confirms our earlier suspicions with regard to how the peanut products were contaminated with salmonella at the Blakely Georgia and Plainview Texas manufacturing plants operated by Peanut Corporation of America. Additional information has been compiled from government agencies, the CDC and FDA, as well as Texas Health Department investigators though to testimony before Congress and the disclosure of PCA documents including e-mails from PCA operator Stewart Parnell. That information provides a still tentative but more complete picture of the corruption of Parnell and the a conscious disregard of the health and lives of the consumers that characterized PCA, and Parnell in particular. The evidence compiled by our salmonella food poisoning lawyers even just still at this very early stage in the investigation demonstrates that Parnell intentionally "let loose" on the public, "let loose" being Parnell's ver batim instruction, salmonella poisoned peanut product sold to food product manufacturers and distributed to retailers and consumers throughout the United States.
As our salmonella food poisoning attorneys had previously speculated, from the open holes in the ceiling and openings in the physical perimeter of the Blakely Georgia plant, and from the known mechanisms of salmonella contamination, there was the likelihood that the cause of the salmonella contamination would probably turn out to be rat or bird excrement. Water draining off a roof into an area where it can contaminate food processing areas is a potent source of salmonella poisoning from bird excrement. Simiar conditions were identfied at Peanut Corporation of America's Plainview Texas plant where investigators found dead rats and rodent excrement found in proximity to an air-exchange ventilating the production area.
As early as 2006 the assistant manager of the Plainview plant, Kenneth Kendrick, sent numerous e-mails to the Texas health department complaining about the leaking roof, which he stated could be a contamination issue specifically because of bird excrement. "Anything nasty you can think of comes from water off a roof," were Kendrick's words.
Peanut Corporation of America was a low budget, cost cutting peanut operation run from a converted garage outside Parnell's Linchberg VA suburban home.
When tests of the peanut butter product proved positive for salmonella contamination, Parnell attempted time and time again to get around destroying the contaminated product, which is just the food industry standard requirement to protect the health of the consumer. Instead, Parnell would order plant managers to get new laboratory tests by sending samples to a different laboratories. In October, 2008, for example, when internal testing showed positive for salmonella Parnell not only ordered that a different lab retest the product, he complained about the delay: "The time lapse, besides the cost, is costing us huge $$$," Parnell stated in an e-mail to his plant manager. In August 2008, when the Plainview plant peanut product returned test results positive for salmonella, on Parnell's instructions the plant manager obtained a negative result from another laboratory, and then Parnell sent an e-mail back to the plant manager, "Okay, let's turn them loose then," referring to the very peanut products which had previously tested positive for salmonella. According to memoranda and correspondence that was made a part of the public record at a Congressional hearing of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, Peanut Corporation of America also shipped out peanut products with a "homemade certificate" falsely attesting that they were contamination free.
If Peanut Corporation of America was solvent, our salmonella food poisoning lawyers would evaluate the case not only as satisfying the criteria for establishing liability for compensatory damage case, but as a good case of malice and conscious disregard for human life and health sufficient to justify punitive damages. Our investigation is ongoing in terms of whether the corporate shield may be pierced but Peanut Corporation of America has gone bankrupt and so the company itself may turn out to receive protection from punitive damages and may indeed have little in terms of insurance or assets to pay compensatory claims by those who suffered illness, let alone assets to pay punitive damages. The punishment of PCA and Parnell may have to be left to the criminal process, and criminal investigations are now underway. As our salmonella food poisoning lawyers explain elsewhere in our "Attorney Evaluation of Viability of Lawsuits Post PCA Bankruptcy," we feel confident that the cases for compensation at least are still viable, including specifically because in food poisoning cases the victim can recover compensatory damages from all those in the "chain of commerce," from the manufacturers to the distributors through to the retailer from whom the victim purchased the contaminated product.
*Most recent Jury Verdict:
$2.700,000.00 jury verdict in a medical and hospital drug fraud case involving 5 plaintiffs taken to trial in a single consolidated action. Mr. Henke also testified before Congress about this case at the invitation of the Chairman of the US House Judiciary, specifically on the important uses of punitive damages to set examples of those who by their conduct put the lives of others at risk maliciously and out of conscious disregard for their lives
*The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
$2.700,000.00 jury verdict in a medical and hospital drug fraud case involving 5 plaintiffs taken to trial in a single consolidated action. Mr. Henke also testified before Congress about this case at the invitation of the Chairman of the US House Judiciary, specifically on the important uses of punitive damages to set examples of those who by their conduct put the lives of others at risk maliciously and out of conscious disregard for their lives
*The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
Food Poisoning Lawyers for E coli HUS & Salmonella and Listeriosis Cases. Attorneys for California and National Outbreaks.
We are the Premier California Food Poisoning Lawyers, Ecoli HUS Salmonella and Listeriosis Attorneys, also representing victims of food poisoning outbreaks nationally.
Providing case evaluation for victims of the Peanut Corporation of America Salmonella outbreak. Spotlight: A Recent Food Poisoning Settlement:: One of our E coli HUS Attorneys obtained one of the largest multimillion dollar settlements ever achieved in an Ecoli HUS case, obtained October 1, 2006.
Consult the Food Poisening Lawyers page on the above practice areas menu for information about the stellar qualifications of our California food poisoning attorney Nick Allis and and food and drug lawyer Henke.
We are the Premier California Food Poisoning Lawyers, Ecoli HUS Salmonella and Listeriosis Attorneys, also representing victims of food poisoning outbreaks nationally.
Providing case evaluation for victims of the Peanut Corporation of America Salmonella outbreak. Spotlight: A Recent Food Poisoning Settlement:: One of our E coli HUS Attorneys obtained one of the largest multimillion dollar settlements ever achieved in an Ecoli HUS case, obtained October 1, 2006.
Consult the Food Poisening Lawyers page on the above practice areas menu for information about the stellar qualifications of our California food poisoning attorney Nick Allis and and food and drug lawyer Henke.
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