Recent Headlines
February 22, 2007
Agreements with John Johnson, 12, of Sanger and Marcus Brown, 22, of Forest Hill were hammered out just as a second jury was to be selected for continuation of a civil trial before 342nd state District Judge Bob McGrath, said Jennifer Aufricht of the Dallas law firm Thompson Coe.
The first jury was dismissed following three weeks of testimony after Keith negotiated settlements with the other plaintiffs: eight botulism victims, the chili manufacturer and Town Talk Foods, a discount grocer.
Town Talk said it had unwittingly sold tubs of chili that, it asserted, had been rejected because of a bad smell by a Keith customer in Dallas but offered to them as "damaged in warehouse."
"There's no admission of wrongdoing," Aufricht said. "We are buying peace."
She declined to disclose the amount of the settlements, saying the dollar figures were confidential.
But sources close to the case said settlements with the main plaintiffs and the final pair were in excess of $5 million.
They declined to be identified because of the confidentiality clauses.
Keith was covered by some liability insurance but would still be required to pay some out of its own pockets, one source said.
Throughout the case, Keith disputed any link between the tubs of frozen chili rejected by Norma's Cafe in Dallas and the tainted chili with the same lot number found during the botulism outbreak.
It said Town Talk could have acquired the chili from other sources.
Johnson and Brown, who both spent weeks in the hospital on life support in 2001, settled with Keith for $315,000 and about $650,000, respectively, before the trial was first scheduled to begin in June 2005.
But they re-entered the case after discovering that key evidence had been withheld by Keith's original attorney.
The evidence included internal memos by Carla Sue Oliver, Keith's inventory control manager, who quoted another supervisor, Bobby Austin, as boasting that he had misled government investigators looking into the botulism poisonings. Another entry disclosed that Norma's Cafe had rejected a case of frozen chili for smell after defrosting one tub.
Still unresolved is a separate suit against Town Talk lodged by the state, which is seeking $25,000 for each day the grocer violated the state's health and safety code arising from the botulism outbreak.
David Broils, Town Talk's attorney, says the state broke its own rules when it sued. Broils also disputes that the botulism outbreak was the store's fault.
Keith settles with last of poisoning victims
By BARRY SHLACHTER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH - Ben E. Keith has reached settlements with the last two victims who were suing the food distributor over a 2001 botulism outbreak tied to contaminated frozen chili, the company's lead trial attorney said Wednesday.Agreements with John Johnson, 12, of Sanger and Marcus Brown, 22, of Forest Hill were hammered out just as a second jury was to be selected for continuation of a civil trial before 342nd state District Judge Bob McGrath, said Jennifer Aufricht of the Dallas law firm Thompson Coe.
The first jury was dismissed following three weeks of testimony after Keith negotiated settlements with the other plaintiffs: eight botulism victims, the chili manufacturer and Town Talk Foods, a discount grocer.
Town Talk said it had unwittingly sold tubs of chili that, it asserted, had been rejected because of a bad smell by a Keith customer in Dallas but offered to them as "damaged in warehouse."
"There's no admission of wrongdoing," Aufricht said. "We are buying peace."
She declined to disclose the amount of the settlements, saying the dollar figures were confidential.
But sources close to the case said settlements with the main plaintiffs and the final pair were in excess of $5 million.
They declined to be identified because of the confidentiality clauses.
Keith was covered by some liability insurance but would still be required to pay some out of its own pockets, one source said.
Throughout the case, Keith disputed any link between the tubs of frozen chili rejected by Norma's Cafe in Dallas and the tainted chili with the same lot number found during the botulism outbreak.
It said Town Talk could have acquired the chili from other sources.
Johnson and Brown, who both spent weeks in the hospital on life support in 2001, settled with Keith for $315,000 and about $650,000, respectively, before the trial was first scheduled to begin in June 2005.
But they re-entered the case after discovering that key evidence had been withheld by Keith's original attorney.
The evidence included internal memos by Carla Sue Oliver, Keith's inventory control manager, who quoted another supervisor, Bobby Austin, as boasting that he had misled government investigators looking into the botulism poisonings. Another entry disclosed that Norma's Cafe had rejected a case of frozen chili for smell after defrosting one tub.
Still unresolved is a separate suit against Town Talk lodged by the state, which is seeking $25,000 for each day the grocer violated the state's health and safety code arising from the botulism outbreak.
David Broils, Town Talk's attorney, says the state broke its own rules when it sued. Broils also disputes that the botulism outbreak was the store's fault.
Barry Shlachter, (817) 390-7718
barry@star-telegram.com
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