MISSOURI, USA — Two St. Louis-area law firms said Wednesday they have uncovered the source of a massive E. coli outbreak.
Taylor Farms California, located in Salinas, California, was allegedly the source of the outbreak, according to amended lawsuits on Wednesday filed by Simon Law Firm and Lange Law Firm. The outbreak has sickened 115 people in Missouri, including 13 hospitalizations, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health said.
"This makes the Lange Law Firm and Simon Law the first-to-file against the supplier in these cases and we are now representing multiple victims affected by this outbreak, including some who have been hospitalized with HUS," an email from Simon Law said. A Simon Law Firm representative said they wouldn't reveal how the source of the outbreak was determined.
The St. Louis County Department of Public Health, the original investigators of the outbreak, said they have not confirmed the outbreak's source as of Wednesday afternoon.
Taylor Farms has not responded to a request for comment. The agriculture company also recently recalled onions linked to a separate E. coli outbreak involving McDonald's Quarter Pounders.
Attorney Jory Lange said in these lawsuits they hope to figure out how this contamination happened, as it could be contaminating future crops.
"Either they're not fixing something that had gone wrong in the past or this is some new thing," Lange said. "The fact that we're seeing multiple E. coli outbreaks with the same farm and that literally hundreds of people all across the country are sick with this is a huge problem."
County health officials, through genetic testing, confirmed 25 of the cases were linked directly to Andre's Banquets and Catering in St. Louis. Additional cases matching the genetic profiles were reported in several other states, including Kansas, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio and Indiana.
Lange said Andre's is not off the hook.
"This doesn't exonerate Andre's in any way because Andre's still sold a product contaminated with E. coli that got 115 people sick. So Andre's is still definitely liable, but this development is probably actually a good thing for Andre's because it means Andre's will be able to point the finger at its supplier and will have its own legal claim against the supplier where Andre's can get compensated for any loss its businesses had suffered," Lange said.
He said the supplier will bear the brunt of the lawsuit.
The department previously said genetic data and food histories suggested "leafy greens" were an exposure factor and "consistently emerged as a key factor" across all states.
"This has really wrecked people's lives," Jory Lange of Lange Law Firm said previously. "Some people have had acute kidney failure, HUS, which E. coli can cause, can lead to lifelong complications and problems. It's really a big deal and it's important for people to know that they're entitled to compensation for what they've gone through."
Lange said this should be a relief for some in St. Louis County, but there's still a long road ahead to get compensation for affected families.
"It is good to know that what Andre's is selling now is likely safe. This shouldn't be something that we should be worried about Andre's getting anyone else sick," Lange said.
A spokesperson for Andre's released this statement:
"Yesterday we responded to the latest news release by St Louis County and said we look forward to the health department finishing its work and finding the source of our local outbreak. Today we've learned law firms representing victims of the region's E Coli outbreak are now suing a California-based produce supplier. Lettuce taken from our facility tested negative for E Coli on November 23rd. The bottom line is that we still don't know the source of the outbreak in our region. We reiterate--as we have from the onset--that it's been unfair to name our company without this investigation being complete."