- Victims of the E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s are preparing to sue.
- At least one has already filed a lawsuit alleging negligence has been filed.
- A top food safety attorney told BI that his phones have been “ringing off the hook.”
Victims who have been sickened in connection to the deadly E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s famed Quarter Pounders are already lawyering up.
Top food safety attorney Ron Simon of the Houston, Texas-based law firm Ron Simon & Associates told Business Insider Wednesday that his phones have been “ringing off the hook” after federal health officials reported the outbreak Tuesday.
“When we came to the office this morning, we had 100 intakes, 100 phone calls, and emails asking us to represent them,” the veteran attorney said. “So our staff is right now going through all of those and determining which are cases.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Simon’s firm had already been retained by at least 12 people who, according to the attorney, recently tested positive for an E. coli infection after eating McDonald’s meals.
One of those people, a Colorado man, brought the first lawsuit against the fast-food giant Wednesday — and Simon says he expects his firm to file dozens more lawsuits in the coming days.
“We will file individual lawsuits on behalf of each of our clients,” said Simon, who noted the people he is currently representing range in age from as young as 15 to 55-years-old.
“Each of the lawsuits will seek compensation for their lost wages, for the significant medical bills they’re going to incur, and also to compensate them from the pain and suffering of becoming sick and even hospitalized,” Simon said.
At least three of Simon’s clients have been hospitalized as a result of their E. coli infection, according to the attorney.
Simon called the outbreak “a completely preventable tragedy.”
“If you properly test the food and your ingredients before you put them into service, before you serve them, there shouldn’t be outbreaks,” he said.
Colorado resident Eric Stelly alleges in his lawsuit that he ate food from his local McDonald’s in the city of Greeley on October 4 and two days later fell ill with E. coli symptoms, which include bloody diarrhea and vomiting.
By October 8, Stelly was hospitalized and he later tested positive for the E. coli O157:H7 strain — the same E. coli strain federal health officials said was linked to the outbreak — the lawsuit, filed by Simon’s firm along with the firm Meyers & Flowers, LLC, says.
The lawsuit, which alleges negligence by McDonald’s, says that health investigators confirmed Stelly was part of the E. coli outbreak linked to McDonalds.
Representatives for McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment by BI.
In a statement, Simon said the McDonald’s-related E. coli outbreak “will be one of the most significant food poisoning outbreaks this year.”
“Through this lawsuit and others, we will make sure that all of the victims are fully compensated for their losses, that their voices are heard, and that McDonald’s and its suppliers permanently fix the health and safety violations that caused their food to become contaminated with E. coli,” he said.
Simon — who also filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of a Holocaust survivor’s family against Boar’s Head in connection to the recent deli meat listeria outbreak — told BI that he expects McDonald’s to settle the anticipated onslaught of claims for millions of dollars.
“It would be gross negligence on McDonald’s part not to try to resolve these cases,” Simon said. “There were clearly mistakes made in the testing process — food that was supposed to be safe was not safe. It was contaminated.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that the E. coli outbreak has so far sickened at least 49 people across 10 states and resulted in one death. The outbreak was linked to 10 hospitalizations, with most of the illnesses occurring in Colorado and Nebraska, according to the CDC.
Most people impacted reported eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers before becoming sick, the federal agency said.
Investigators are working to confirm which ingredient in the hamburgers is responsible for the contamination.
McDonald’s said it paused the distribution of slivered onions in the Quarter Pounder and temporarily removed the burger from restaurants in the impacted areas.
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