Peterson v. Thomson International, Incorporated

District Court, E.D. California·Decided October 8, 2024·No. 1:22-cv-00701·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10

11 MATTHEW PETERSON, et al., Case No.: 1:22-cv-00701-JLT-CDB

12 Plaintiffs, PRETRIAL ORDER

13 v. Deadlines:

14 THOMSON INTERNATIONAL, Motions in Limine Filing: December 20, 2024 INCORPORATED, Oppositions to Motions in Limine: January 3, 2025 15 Trial Submissions: January 15, 2025 Defendant. 16 Jury trial: January 22, 2025, at 8:30 a.m., 20 days estimate 17

18 On October 7, 2024, the Court conducted a final pretrial conference. Lindsay C. Lien Amin 19 appeared as counsel for Plaintiffs; Robert Sallander, Robert Seeds and Helen Chen appeared as 20 counsel for Defendant. 21 This case concerns the 2020 North American Salmonella Newport outbreak, associated with 22 Thomson International Incorporated’s onions grown in the central and southern valleys of California. 23 (See Compl., Doc. 1 at ¶ 23.) Plaintiffs are seven individuals who contracted Salmonella infections 24 after consuming onions allegedly “produced and sourced by Defendant Thomson International[.]” (Id. 25 at 7–12.)1 Plaintiffs bring four causes of action against Defendant: (1) strict liability; (2) breach of 26 express and implied warranties; (3) negligence; and (4) negligence per se. (Id. at 12–16.) Plaintiffs 27

28 1 On July 15, 2024, the Court granted Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff Carson Brenda from the instant action. (Doc. 76.) 1 request economic and non-economic damages, as well as medical expenses. (Id. at 16–17.) Plaintiffs 2 also request pre-judgment and post-judgment interest. (Id. at 17.) 3 A. JURISDICTION/ VENUE 4 This Court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332 based on diversity 5 jurisdiction. In addition, Defendant resides in Bakersfield, California. (Doc. 1 at ¶ 9.) Accordingly, 6 venue is proper in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. See 28 U.S.C. 7 § 1391(b)(1). 8 B. JURY TRIAL 9 The parties demanded a jury trial in this matter. (Doc. 1 at 17; Doc. 82 at 2.) The jury trial will 10 consist of eight jurors. 11 C. UNDISPUTED FACTS 12 The parties have provided a statement of undisputed facts, recited below. (Doc. 82 at 2–7.) 13 1. Thomson grew and sold onions in 2020 (“Thomson onions”). 14 2. The Thomson onions were grown in various fields in Holtville and Bakersfield, 15 California. 16 3. Salmonella enterica serotype Newport is a bacteria that causes illness in humans. 17 4. Salmonella (via human or animal fecal material) can contaminate many types of foods. 18 5. Onions contaminated with Salmonella Newport are harmful when consumed by humans. 19 6. Produce containing Salmonella is considered adulterated under the Food, Drug and 20 Cosmetic Act. 21 7. Symptoms of Salmonella typically occur within six hours to six days following ingestion, 22 and commonly consist of diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal cramping, but 23 can be more severe. 24 8. Salmonella is a reportable disease. 25 9. FDA traceback efforts focused on restaurant clusters. 26 10. CDC Cluster Code “2007MLJJP-1” refers to an outbreak of Salmonella Newport. 27 11. The total number of US cases associated with the cluster was 1,127. 28 1 12. Inspections of Thomson facilities were conducted in August and September 2020. 2 13. Some Thomson onions were packed in the field. 3 14. Thomson shipped Thomson onions to Sysco Montana. 4 15. Sadie Floding2 became ill with Salmonella. 5 16. Lynnetta Klam became ill with Salmonella. 6 17. Teischa Benson became ill with Salmonella. 7 18. Jody Barry became ill with Salmonella. 8 19. Lori Davies became ill with Salmonella. 9 20. Matthew Peterson became ill with Salmonella. 10 21. Colin Strub became ill with Salmonella. 11 22. This case arises from the same 2020 Salmonella Newport outbreak that was the subject 12 of plaintiffs’ claims in Angelo v. Thomson International Inc., case no. 1:21-CV-01609- 13 JLT-CDB. Judgment in Angelo was entered in favor of Thomson on July 19, 2024. 14 23. Thomson is a family-owned business that has been farming in Bakersfield since 1893. It 15 has grown onions, and other crops, in Bakersfield and Holtville, California. 16 24. In 2020, Thomson had about 300 acres of onions in cultivation. 17 25. As in prior years, Thomson had a food safety program in place that was audited by 18 Primus, a leading independent third-party auditor. 19 26. Approximately 80 percent of Thomson’s 2020 onion crop, which included yellow, sweet 20 yellow, red, and white onion varieties, were brokered by Onions 52, a Utah-based onion 21 grower, packer, and seller, and KOR Produce, a Pennsylvania-based broker. 22 23 27. At the time, Onions 52 was brokering for five other onion growers and receiving their 24 onions into the same facilities where it handled Thomson’s onions. 25 28. On July 10, 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) 26 identified an outbreak of Salmonella Newport infections, but had not identified a specific 27 28 2 Sadie Floding now uses the name Sadie Merkel. (Doc. 82 at 11.) 1 food, grocery store, or restaurant as the source of the outbreak. The outbreak was 2 assigned the identity, CDC cluster code 2007MLJJP-1. By then, the outbreak had 3 peaked. 4 29. The FDA contacted Thomson as part of its investigation. 5 30. The FDA investigation of Thomson’s farms and packing houses took place from August 6 3 to approximately September 18, 2020. As part of its ongoing investigation, the FDA, 7 with the assistance of the California Department of Public Health, sent a team of 8 inspectors to Thomson’s packing facility and growing fields. 9 31. They gathered nearly 2,000 samples for laboratory testing. 10 32. The inspection teams spent approximately 150 hours examining and taking 11 environmental samples. 12 33. The inspectors did not take water samples from the canal used to irrigate Thomson’s field 13 in Holtville. The canal was dry at the time of inspection. Water samples were from more 14 distant canals. 15 34. Because of COVID, the inspectors required the packing house to be fully opened and for 16 there to be no personnel present. Packing operations and customary maintenance and 17 cleaning of the packing house were suspended. 18 35. The outbreak strain of Salmonella Newport has not been isolated in any TII onion, any 19 product made with TII onions, in TII’s packing facility, on its equipment, or at TII’s 20 growing fields. 21 36. No TII onion has tested positive for the outbreak strain of Salmonella Newport. 22 23 37. The FDA stated that “the Salmonella Newport outbreak strain (specific whole genome 24 sequence [WGS]) was not identified in any of the nearly 2,000 subsamples tested.” 25 38. The FDA stated that “a conclusive root cause of the outbreak could not be identified.” 26 39. The FDA failed to follow up where the case exposure was at Subway retail units (not 27 supplied by Thomson), where the FDA could not explain the exposures. 28 40. The FDA conducted no sampling or environmental inspection of Onions 52, Hartley 1 Produce, or other farms that supplied them onions. 2 41. WGS is the subtyping of bacterial isolate that is submitted by culture-positive ill 3 persons, and is performed within the PulseNet molecular laboratory surveillance 4 system headed by the CDC. 5 42. WGS is performed by sequencing the DNA or “genomic makeup” of each Salmonella 6 isolate. Genomes from culture-positive patients, food, and environmental isolates are 7 compared through sequencing to determine whether they are genetically similar. 8 43.

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