Case Facts
Mazow | McCullough brought a product liability case against a New Hampshire supermarket for selling meat that was infected with E. coli bacteria.
A 70-year-old woman purchased ground beef at a New Hampshire supermarket. The meat was infected with E. coli bacteria. She prepared hamburgers for herself and her companion. After experiencing severe gastrointestinal pain, she was admitted to the hospital. She underwent aggressive plasmapheresis, a blood purification procedure, which left her confused and periodically covered in blood. She remained hospitalized for several days. She died from respiratory failure, multisystem failure, and hemolytic uremic syndrome.
Issues
The victim was part of an outbreak of E. coli bacteria that occurred across much of the Northeast and involved multi-state litigation. There were two large national beef manufacturers and slaughterhouses involved in the outbreak, as well as the Centers for Disease Control.
This was a high-stakes product liability suit: millions of dollars were at stake for the losing defendant and the cases were aggressively defended by well-heeled defense counsel. Mazow | McCullough, PC retained a leading endocrinologist to assist them in reviewing and analyzing the thousands of pages of medical records and data from the Centers for Disease Control. Mazow | McCullough, PC was prepared to go to trial in New Hampshire Federal Court.
Mazow | McCullough, PC was faced with defense counsel who insisted that the life of a retired 70-year-old grandmother was not worth a tremendous amount of money.
Settlement Details
Mazow | McCullough settled this product liability case one week prior to trial for $1,200,000. We pushed back hard on the defense counsel who did not believe it should pay a lot of money for the life of retired grandmother. This may be one of the highest settlements in New Hampshire for the death of a retired 70-year-old.
