Juici-Rich Products, Inc. v. Lowe

735 F. Supp. 1387, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4819, 1990 WL 51238
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 23, 1990
DocketNo. 87-3275
StatusPublished

This text of 735 F. Supp. 1387 (Juici-Rich Products, Inc. v. Lowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Juici-Rich Products, Inc. v. Lowe, 735 F. Supp. 1387, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4819, 1990 WL 51238 (C.D. Ill. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

RICHARD MILLS, District Judge:

A question of possible contamination of fruit juice for school children.

Can a Civil Rights action lay?

Not under these facts.

Juici-Rich Products, Inc., has brought this suit — under the aegis of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 — seeking to recover for injuries stemming from an alleged violation of its constitutional rights by Illinois Public Health official Lowe. Juici-Rich complains that Lowe’s actions, taken in the course of his employment as a supervisor for the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), violated its rights to due process and equal protection of the law, as those rights are extended by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Lowe has now moved for summary judgment on the grounds that (1) no equal protection or due process violation can be established by the facts of this case, and that even if such violations occurred (2) he was entitled to qualified immunity for his actions. Also, Lowe argues (3) that to the extent the complaint seeks recovery from him in his capacity as the Regional Supervisor of the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Eleventh Amendment bars this action.

Because we agree with Defendant Lowe as to each of these assertions, we enter summary judgment in his favor.

FACTS

This lawsuit had its genesis on May 28, 1987, when a large number of school children in Danville, Illinois, succumbed to a food-related illness. Juici-Rich’s products were among those served at the school, and so Juici-Rich, like others of the school’s suppliers, was inspected by officials of the IDPH to ascertain whether its products contained any contaminants related to the Danville illnesses. Significantly, fruit punch and orange juice taken from the school were found to contain a high content of yeast and mold growth.

On June 3, 1987, IDPH employee Elizabeth Watkins obtained from Juici-Rich a product sample for testing. Two days later, on June 5, Watkins and IDPH employee Robin Amsbary, as well as Donald Voeller of the federal Food and Drug Administration, inspected the Juici-Rich facility (by consent); the results from the laboratory testing were not yet available. During the inspection, the health officials noted numerous unsanitary conditions and violations of health laws. Among other things, the inspectors noted mold growing on the floors, walls, ceiling and shelving in the facility, and they also noted mold growth on the equipment used to produce and package Juici-Rich’s products. The inspectors took note of other unsanitary condi[1389]*1389tions as well, such as standing water, bulging wall panels, cracked and pitted floor surfaces, and the like. Significant plumbing violations were also observed, as were various practices and procedures which were not in conformance with public health law.

Following that inspection, the IDPH inspectors left with Juici-Rich a copy of their inspection report, including detailed recommendations to correct unsanitary conditions. These recommendations required corrective actions anywhere from one to sixty days following the inspection; the only three matters requiring 24 hour correction were that Juici-Rich was to begin using an appropriate amount of chlorine for sanitizing, was to label and identify raw products on the body of containers rather than merely upon lids, and was to require all employees to wear hair and beard restraints during production. The inspectors then left the facility.

On June 8, the two IDPH inspectors (Amsbary and Watkins), along with the FDA investigator Voeller, met with the Defendant Lowe in his office to discuss the Juici-Rich facility. The inspectors showed Lowe their inspection report, and provided him with a verbal briefing on the situation, and additionally informed him that they were in agreement, as were IDPH employees Dr. Flentge and Dr. Francis, that the products of the facility should be embargoed. They brought this to Lowe’s attention, though, because in the end the decision whether to embargo was his.

Based upon this information and the recommendations made by the others, Lowe was moved to consider the possibility of an embargo. Consequently, he and the two IDPH inspectors and the FDA investigator returned to the Juici-Rich plant. The FDA investigator had called ahead, so the plant owner (Mr. Keller) was expecting them, and met them outside the plant. Keller refused them entry, and tape recorded (with consent) their conversation. In essence, that conversation consisted of Lowe explaining to Keller that he was there as a follow-up to the previous inspection. He explained that if Keller would permit entry, he would make his own inspection, and if he found the condition of the premises to not warrant immediate action, none would be taken; on the other hand, should the conditions warrant immediate action, Lowe would present to Keller an agreement to destroy the contaminated product then in the facility, and if Keller would refuse to sign the agreement Lowe alternatively would place an embargo on the product, which would forbid anyone to move or consume the product pending further proceedings. Keller, however, refused entry to the premises, and so Lowe explained that his only remaining alternative was to embargo the facility’s products based upon the knowledge he then possessed. After a fairly lengthy (and fairly heated) discussion, Lowe did issue an embargo covering “[a]ll food products which have been opened, mixed, and/or packaged within the facility ... as well as the food products located in the Juici-Rich, Inc. tractor-trailer located on the facility grounds.”

The day following the embargo, lab results were returned from the June 3 sample collection, and these reflected an extremely high yeast and mold count. On June 18, 1987, the Attorney General filed an action in state court seeking to condemn the food product embargoed on June 8. That condemnation action is still pending in the state court.

COMPLAINT AND MOTION

Juici-Rich’s asking price is $4,000,000 for compensation for claimed violations of its constitutional rights flowing from Lowe’s actions on June 8.

Juici-Rich contends that when Lowe showed up to embargo the product, he did not provide Juici-Rich with laboratory reports identifying its products as contaminated. Moreover, Juici-Rich claims that Lowe had no authority to embargo its products because he lacked any reason, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion that those products were adulterated or contaminated. In fact, Juici-Rich contends that Lowe had already decided that he would embargo the product when he appeared at the facility on June 8, inasmuch as he in[1390]*1390formed Keller that he had three options then: to embargo the product without inspecting the facility, or, after inspecting the facility, to embargo the product or to destroy the product with Juici-Rich’s consent. Finally, Juici-Rich alleges that at the time of the June 5 inspection, the IDPH had already cleared Juici-Rich of any responsibility for the Danville food-borne illness outbreak.

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Bluebook (online)
735 F. Supp. 1387, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4819, 1990 WL 51238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/juici-rich-products-inc-v-lowe-ilcd-1990.