Category: U.S. Circuit Courts
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Eighth Circuit Affirms Judgment in Supply Chain Dispute over Recalled Westland Beef
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a $1.6 million award of damages and attorney’s fees in a contract dispute between General Mills and the company that sold it beef obtained from the Westland Meat Co. and recalled in 2008 after “[v]ideo footage from the Humane Society allegedly showed Westland employees improperly handling cattle…
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Former Beef Processing Worker Sues Jamie Oliver and ABC Anchor
One of the 750 beef processing plant employees who lost his job in the wake of recent negative publicity involving “lean finely textured beef,” otherwise referred to in the media as “pink slime,” has reportedly filed a lawsuit in a Nebraska state court naming as defendants celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, ABC’s Diane Sawyer, a blogger,…
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Worker Exposed to Diacetyl on the Job Loses Before California Jury
According to a news source, the first “popcorn-lung” occupational exposure case tried in California has resulted in a defense verdict. Velasquez v. Flavor & Extract Mfrs. Ass’n, No. BC370319 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., verdict reached December 12, 2012). The plaintiff was a former flavoring factory employee who claimed that his exposure to the butter-flavoring chemical…
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Putative Class Claims Monster Beverage Targets Youth and Miscategorizes Energy Drinks
A plaintiff who claims he began consuming Monster Beverage energy drinks as a teenager, because he was offered free beverages from a truck parked outside his high school, has filed a putative nationwide consumer-fraud class action against the company in a California federal court. Fisher v. Monster Beverage Corp., No. 12-02188 (C.D. Cal., filed December…
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Plaintiff Cannot Sue for “Fake” White Chocolate Products He Did Not Buy
A federal court in California has dismissed in part putative class claims filed by a man who alleges that Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. white chocolate products do not contain the requisite white chocolate ingredients to be labeled and promoted as such. Miller v. Ghirardelli Chocolate Co., No. 12-04936 (N.D. Cal, decided December 6, 2012). The court agreed…
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Court Directs Litigants to Take Yogurt Dispute to FDA
A federal court in Minnesota has dismissed without prejudice state law-based consumer-fraud claims filed against a company that makes Greek yogurt not by straining it, a process essential to the traditional production of this thickened dairy product, but by adding milk protein concentrate (MPC). Taradejna v. General Mills, Inc., No. 12-993 (D. Minn., decided December 10,…
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MDL Court Certifies Class of Purchasers After Full-Blown Daubert Analysis
A multidistrict litigation (MDL) court that is considering pretrial matters in 91 consolidated antitrust lawsuits alleging that major chocolate manufacturers conspired to implement price increases from 2002 through 2007, has granted the direct-purchaser plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. In re Chocolate Confectionery Antitrust Litig., MDL No. 1935 (M.D. Pa., order entered December 7, 2012). The court…
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Challengers Seek Expedited Argument on NYC Large-Size Soda Ban
Soft drink manufacturers and restaurateurs have reportedly requested that the court reschedule oral arguments in their challenge to a New York City prohibition on the sale of sweetened beverages in sizes that exceed 16 ounces. N.Y. Statewide Coal. of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce v. NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene, No. 653584/2012 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.,…