Jack In The Box Sues Supplier Of Hamburger Linked To E. Coli

The owners of Jack in the Box restaurants have filed suit against the company that supplied the hamburger that has been linked to an epidemic of bacterial infection in Western Washington.

Foodmaker Inc., which operates the fast-food chain, yesterday filed suit in San Diego against Vons Cos. Inc. and its other suppliers, seeking to recover all the costs involved in the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7. More than 400 people have become ill from the bacteria and two children have died since mid-January.

More than 90 percent of the victims in the E. coli epidemic ate contaminated hamburgers at Jack in the Box outlets. The tainted beef has been traced to a shipment Jack in the Box received from the Southern California processor.

Investigators don't know how the meat became contaminated, but federal agriculture officials say it occurred before the meat arrived at Vons and are investigating up to 14 slaughterhouses that might have provided the meat to the distributor.

No dollar amount was specified in the lawsuit, but it could include litigation expenses, damages and medical costs. Several lawsuits have been filed against Foodmaker, and Jack in the Box has promised to pay the hospitalization costs of customers who were stricken by the bacteria.

Also named in the lawsuit are 10 companies - suppliers, importers or slaughterhouses - that may have supplied the tainted meat to Vons.

The lawsuit, which alleges negligence, was not unexpected, said Vons spokeswoman Mary McAboy. "While we expected Foodmaker to sue its suppliers, we continue to be confident that Vons' processing did not contaminate the meat," she said. "Health authorities have made it clear that proper cooking would have prevented this tragedy."

Health officials found massive amounts of contaminated beef after they linked the outbreak to Jack in the Box hamburgers. State health officials said 280,000 hamburgers from one suspected lot were confiscated from the company's outlets and Tukwila warehouse. Later testing of samples revealed contamination was widespread throughout the lot.

That suggests the outbreak could have been much worse had health officials not acted quickly to identify the source of the bacteria and seized the tainted meat.

Most of the confiscated meat is being held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Tukwila. Eventually the meat could either be destroyed or cooked in a supervised federal plant to kill the bacteria, said Jim Greene, spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. He said the disposal ultimately will be up to the owner of the meat.

The Foodmaker lawsuit was not the only litigation filed yesterday.

Two new personal-injury suits were filed against Jack in the Box in federal court in Seattle, and the attorney in one of those cases said he planned on filing another complaint today on behalf of five more people.

The suits filed yesterday were on behalf of four victims: a 7-year-old Edmonds boy, Ryan Kitzing, and his father, Michael Kitzing; a 9-year-old Tacoma girl, Kenda Loepp, and a Fort Lewis woman, Sloan Anne Summers. Summers, who is six months pregnant, said she will amend her complaint if her unborn son suffers any harm.

The suit filed on behalf of Loepp and Summers also names Vons as a defendant.

Tacoma attorney Charles Herrmann, who represents Loepp and Summers, said he would file a suit today on behalf of a 1-year-old Bellevue girl, Presley Neufeld, and her mother, Laurie Neufeld, and three members of a Kent family: Priscilla Foss, 2; Jonathan Foss, 5, and their father, John Foss.

Attorney Laird Pisto and Herrmann contend there's reason to believe Vons was made aware of the problem with the E. coli bacteria more than two years ago.

An article in the Sept. 24, 1990, edition of Supermarket News, a trade publication that is routinely mailed to distributors like Vons, specifically called attention to the problem.

In other developments, Children's Hospital and Medical Center of Seattle yesterday discharged four infected patients, the first since Jan. 30. Also, a 5-year-old who had been airlifted to the hospital from Skagit County earlier this week has improved and was taken out of intensive care, said spokesman Dean Forbes.

He said 15 children remain hospitalized, including a 2-year-old Seattle girl admitted Wednesday night. Four patients remain on kidney dialysis.

At Tacoma's Mary Bridge Children's Health Center, four children remain hospitalized, two in critical condition, hospital officials said.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent two physicians to Seattle to help teach day-care centers how to prevent secondary infections - transmission of the bacteria from person to person.

The doctors will be working with day-care centers outside King County, which already has its own a prevention program in place, said state epidemiologist Dr. John Kobayashi.

The key, said Dr. Janet Mohle-Boetani, with the CDC, is diligent handwashing. Warm water and soap will kill the bacteria.

One Snohomish County girl, Celina Shribbs, died from an E. coli infection, but the source of her contamination has not been determined. The girl, who did not eat at Jack in the Box, attended a day care in Snohomish County.

In all, health officials say about 40 children who contracted the illness were enrolled in day-care centers.

Most secondary infections are passed among family members, but day-care centers are also at risk, health officials said. Four of the children hospitalized in Seattle have secondary infections.