Federal judge rules that alternative liability theory applies in litigation against two turkey processing plants resulting from a deadly listeria outbreak in Northeast
(5/15/2006) – A federal judge on May 4 in Drayton v. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (involving four consolidated cases against Pilgrim’s Pride and Jack Lambersky Poultry Co.) granted plaintiffs’ motion to proceed under the alternative liability theory and rejected defendants’ motion for summary judgment. According to the opinion, under the alternative liability theory, the plaintiffs are relieved of the requirement to show which of the two defendants’ products caused their injuries because the defendants “acted in substantially the same manner at about the same time and are the only potential sources of the strain which caused plaintiffs’ injuries.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage wrote:
“There is ample evidence, if accepted by the jury, that would establish that each plaintiff had the Lm strain of Listeriosis, the defendants produced products containing the same strain that were consumed by the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs’ injuries were caused by the strain of Listeriosis, and no other manufacturer’s turkey products available to the plaintiffs were tainted.”
