The family of a Holocaust survivor has filed the first wrongful death lawsuit against Boar’s Head in connection to the ongoing listeria outbreak.
Boar’s Head’s “negligence” in the manufacturing and distribution of “defective and unreasonably dangerous” lunch meats led to the July 18 death of 88-year-old Virginia resident Günter Morgenstein, the man’s family said in the lawsuit.
Representatives for Boar’s Head did not immediately return a request for comment by Business Insider.
Morgenstein, a married father, purchased Boar’s Head liverwurst and other Boar’s Head products on June 30, eating the deli meats on sandwiches over the next few days, his family said in the lawsuit filed last week in a Florida court.
“He subsequently became ill, suffering from weakness, diarrhea, fatigue, and a fever,” the family said in the lawsuit, adding that Morgenstein’s condition worsened and he was hospitalized on July 8.
A blood culture came back positive for listeria bacteria, the lawsuit says.
Morgenstein “ingested listeria from the product and developed listeriosis, encephalitis, meningitis, sepsis, and sustained other injuries as a result of the ingestion of the product,” the lawsuit says.
He died after spending 10 days in the hospital. Morgenstein was a Holocaust survivor, who according to his obituary, left East Berlin “with just the clothes on his back” in 1954.
Health officials later determined that Morgenstein was a “confirmed case in the Boar’s Head Listeria Outbreak,” according to the wrongful-death lawsuit.
The deli meat that Morgenstein consumed “was defective because it contained listeria and Defendant failed to give adequate warnings of the product’s dangers that were known or by the application of reasonably developed human skill and foresight should have been known,” the lawsuit says.
Ron Simon, an attorney for Morgenstein’s family, said in a statement to BI that Morgenstein “should not have died from eating a sandwich.”
“Through this lawsuit and others, we will make sure that all listeria victims are fairly compensated for their losses, we will find out exactly how this happened, and we will force Boar’s Head to make sure it never happens again,” Simon said.
Morgenstein’s son, Garshon Morgenstein, said in a statement that his family is “devastated.”
“We hope that through the legal process we can make Boar’s Head and other lunch meat products safer for future consumers,” the son said.
According to the latest information from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 57 people have been hospitalized and at least nine people have died across the country in connection to the Boar’s Head deli meat listeria outbreak.
“This is the largest listeriosis outbreak since the 2011 outbreak linked to cantaloupe,” the CDC has said.
Boar’s Head has recalled millions of pounds of deli meats due to the outbreak and paused production at its Jarratt, Virginia, processing facility.
“This product recall is limited to only our Jarratt, Virginia facility. And, only Boar’s Head Liverwurst has been found to be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes,” Boar’s Head said in a statement posted to its website.
In an updated statement posted on August 29, the deli meat company said, “We deeply regret the impact this recall has had on affected families. No words can fully express our sympathies and the sincere and deep hurt we feel for those who have suffered losses or endured illness.”
“We are conducting an extensive investigation, working closely with the USDA and government regulatory agencies, as well as with the industry’s leading food safety experts, to determine how our liverwurst produced at our Jarratt, Virginia facility was adulterated and to prevent it from happening again,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, newly released records from the US Department of Agriculture show that inspectors have found dozens of violations — including the presence of mold, bugs, and blood — at the Boar’s Head Jarratt, Virginia, deli meat plant in the past year.
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