Two lawsuits have been filed against the fast-food giant after the CDC announced it was investigating an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
Two lawsuits have been filed against the fast-food giant after the CDC announced it was investigating an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
Not to defend McD’s, but isn’t it looking a lot like a third party distributor that caused this?
A lot of companies have tried to dodge their liability responsibilities by claiming it was an unrelated third party that is responsible.
The consumer still has a contractual relationship with the vendor, not the upstream provider.
The vendor is the one who should ensure their supply chain is safe, and can’t demand a stupidly low price that gives no room for safe practices.
Especially in cases like McDonalds. They’ve owned their entire supply chain since at least the late 90s.
The onions that were contaminated came from Taylor Farms, who supplies the onions for quarter pounders. McDonalds does not own Taylor Farms.
Lawsuits like this list all possible parties that have money; so McDonald’s, the local store, the local store owner, the distributor, any outside company any of the above companies use that could be linked to sanitation, all of them would be listed.
If the case goes to trial and the movant(victim) wins, then the jury/judge will assign blame as a percent of the total. McDonald’s may have no liability despite being included, or they may have 10% meaning they need to pay that percent of whatever judgement was awarded.
Each named party can also independently try to settle to have their name removed from future proceedings.
Yup, the shotgun approach is standard. Most of these people and companies will be removed from the suit pretty quick. McDonald’s will settle fairly soon, because they can save money that way instead of going through the whole trial just to reduce their liability. The main defendant will be the source of the onions, either the farm/importer or the distributor. They’ll settle eventually.
Who sold the meat to consumers, and was there other (more expensive) meat McDiarrhea could have sold instead?