Lawsuit Cites Minnesota Restaurant as Responsible for Illness

By Richard Seward

Published on January 30, 2007

This case comes on the heels of an E. coli outbreak which affected 81 diners last year at Taco John's locations in Austin and Albert Lea as well as Cedar Falls, Iowa. Of the 81 treated, 26 people required hospitalization.

In January, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it had discovered bacteria strains in stool samples taken from Iowa and Minnesota that matched manure used in dairy farms outside of Bakersfield, California.

According to her lawyer, Bill Marler, due to laws regarding strict liability, Johnson is filing her lawsuit against the owners of the franchise instead of the restaurant's produce distributor or the corporate chain. Strict liability law levels responsibility for product safety against the maker of the product and not against the various manufacturers of the components of the product. As an example of strict liability law, an owner of an automobile can sue the car's manufacturer over a defective tire even if the tire was provided by an independent supplier.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary compensation for damages incurred from Johnson's son's illness.

The owners of the Taco John's location named in the lawsuit declined to comment, but are cooperating with the FDA.

The plaintiff could not be reached for comment.

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