Food poisoning is really common, and when it comes to it, the business selling the food may be liable for failure to exercise reasonable care in storing and preparing food, or may be found strictly liable for a defective food product.
Under general negligence principles, a business has a duty to exercise reasonable care with proper food preparations. Furthermore, in the restaurant context, “reasonable care” means that the restaurant has a duty to maintain a safe environment, produce safe products and eliminate unreasonable dangers. A negligence claim begins to take shape once the restaurant breaches its duty to customers. An example of this would be when a restaurant maintains a dirty kitchen stores food in unsanitary ways.
In a negligence case against a store or restaurant for food poisoning, the victim must prove that the business caused the food poisoning. Proving causation is often difficult in these cases. In addition, the victim must prove that it was the business’s food and not other food that caused the illness. It may be the case that the victim had eaten breakfast at home and then ate at a restaurant for lunch and became ill. The source must be isolated and identified, and a doctor must be consulted immediately to determine the illness and identify of the contaminated food.
The damages from food poisoning can be devastating and can cause serious injury. Damages in a personal injury case can include personal injury, medical bills, pain and suffering and emotion distress. In extremely rare cases, death can result from food poisoning. The loved ones of the deceased may be able to file a wrongful death action against the liable business.
As mentioned above, food poisoning cases are pretty common, and businesses selling tainted food are often the cause for negligence. In this case of premises liability, you can count on Parvey & Cavenago to get you the compensation you deserve. Stay healthy, everyone!
