A woman claiming to have served her family beef tied to the recent first known case of U.S. mad cow disease, on Friday sued a supermarket division of Kroger Co. for failing to warn shoppers about the tainted meat.
Steve Berman, a lawyer representing the Bellevue, Washington-based shopper, said the lawsuit sought an unspecified amount of damages, as well as the establishment of a medical monitoring fund.
He said the complaint, which seeks class-action court certification, was filed in King County Superior Court on behalf of Jill Crowson, a frequent shopper at Quality Food Centers Inc., owned by Kroger, the largest U.S. supermarket chain.
Crowson apparently bought the potentially tainted meat in the two days leading up to a U.S. Department of Agriculture recall of some 10,410 pounds of suspect meat, according to Berman.
On Dec. 23, 2003, the USDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that one case of mad cow disease had been detected in Washington state.
On Dec. 24, 2003, the USDA began a recall of 10,000 pounds of meat from a group of 20 cattle slaughtered on Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Washington.
Quality Food Centers did not warn Crowson and many other customers about the recall, Berman said.
He said in a statement that since Quality Food Centers had a customer loyalty card program that tracks customer purchases, it should have telephoned warnings to customers rather than posting "small signs" with information on the recall at its stores some days later.
"We contend that QFC knew which Advantage Card customers purchased the suspect meat, and could have easily called to warn them," Berman said.
He added that Crowson's family had to file a written request before Quality Food Centers would "confirm their fears."
A spokesman for Kroger, which owns the QFC chain of more than 80 stores, did not immediately return calls seeking comment about the lawsuit.
