In This Issue:
- THE SPREADING WEB OF FOOD RECALL LIABILITY
Suits against Jensen Farms arising from its sale of listeria-tainted cantaloupes are expected to seek more than $100,000,000. These damages are estimated to be more than Jensen Farms’ available insurance coverage. Perhaps as a result, plaintiffs are naming a variety of other companies as defendants, including (1) distributors, (2) supermarkets, including both Wal- Mart and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kroger, and (3) the food safety auditing company that Jensen used. If experience from other product liability and toxic tort trends is a guide, all of these numbers will soon increase – the food industry will see more plaintiffs, seeking more damages, from more types of companies...
- FOOD INSURANCE COVERAGE DEVELOPMENTS
In Little Lady Foods, Inc. v. Houston Casualty Company, No. 10 C 8280 (N.D. Ill. 2011), the court denied coverage for product recall costs under a product recall policy. For a full discussion of this case, see the alert on our web site....
- ARE RESTAURANT ODORS POLLUTANTS?
In Barney Greengrass, Inc. v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company, No. 10-3467 cv (2nd Cir. Nov. 4, 2011), a neighbor claimed that odors from the exhaust of a well-known Upper West Side New York City delicatessen made his living room unlivable. Lumbermens denied coverage under the pollution exclusion. The district court found that the insurer had to defend and ruled that “to read ‘pollution’ as encompassing ‘restaurant odors’… would contradict ‘common speech’ and the ‘reasonable expectations of a businessperson,’ who has come to understand pollution exclusions as addressing environmental-type harms.” The Second Circuit affirmed....
- FOOD NEWS
• The FDA ordered Del Monte Fresh Produce to halt imports of Guatemalan cantaloupes because of concerns over salmonella contamination. Del Monte responded by suing the FDA....
- SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
• Lowenstein Sandler will exhibit at the New Jersey Food Processors Association Annual Meeting, January 30, 2012, at The Westin Mount Laurel, in Mount Laurel, NJ....
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