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Lawsuit Alleges KFC Causes Cancer, Customers Shrug
Legal World News |
2009/10/26 09:37
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A national doctors group filed suit against KFC last month in San Francisco, alleging that the fast food chain’s new grilled chicken product contains carcinogens and should be required to come with a warning.
“This is an issue of alerting the public to the danger,” said Dan Kinburn, general counsel for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “We’re not suing for damages. We’re suing for warning labels. We want people to know about this risk.”
An advertisement for KFC's grilled chicken inside the Mission restaurant.
An advertisement for KFC's grilled chicken inside the Mission restaurant.
The group collected 12 samples of chicken from six KFC locations in the Bay Area. Analysis from an independent testing lab found all the samples contained PhIP, a chemical classified as a carcinogen by the federal government and the state of California.
KFC advertises its grilled chicken as a “better-for-you option for health-conscious customers,” according to its web site.
Unaware of the lawsuit, customers streamed into KFC/Taco Bell last week at the corner of Duboce Avenue and Guerrero Street in the Mission District. Behind the counter, employees grilled sizzling chicken and sprayed condiments into burritos from what looked like industrial caulking guns.
“I think anyone that eats here already understands that they are eating such unhealthy food that one more carcinogen is sort of a drop in the bucket,” said 24-year-old Nick Namoto, who comes to the restaurant because it’s quick and cheap.
“Is it fair that you poison people with food? Not really. But people are eating here willingly,” he said, “and people that don’t know that they’re eating poison here are idiots.”
While it might be common knowledge that fast food is far from wholesome, the physicians group said they are targeting KFC because the company has been marketing its grilled chicken products as a healthy alternative to its fried foods.
He said the suit hopes to set a precedent by requiring warning labels that will be applied to other products containing PhIP beyond the poultry empire built by Colonel Sanders.
Numerous studies conducted over decades have shown eating PhIP significantly increases the risk of developing various forms of cancer, Kinburn said.
According to California’s Proposition 65, passed in 1986, businesses must warn customers if they are exposing them to chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects.
While the lawsuit targets KFC, Kinburn said PhIP isn’t limited to chicken prepared by the fast food chain. He said the chemical is produced anytime chicken is cooked above 170 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Whether you do it in a fast food restaurant, in sit-down restaurant, in your own oven or on a barbeque grill, you’re going to get PhIP,” he said. “Actually, all animal flesh cooked hot enough and long enough will create PhIP. That includes shrimp and fish.” |
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Court won't review Fla. Pledge of Allegiance law
Legal World News |
2009/10/05 14:30
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| pThe Supreme Court has rejected an appeal to review a Florida law that requires public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each day unless they have their parents' written permission excusing them./ppThe justices declined Monday an appeal filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida on behalf of a high school student removed from his math class because he remained seated during the pledge./ppA federal appeals court upheld most of the law. The ACLU said that ruling, if left undisturbed, would undermine the Supreme Court's 1943 ruling that schoolchildren could not be forced to salute the flag and say the pledge./ppFlorida argued that the law, by giving parents the right to have their children excused, does not violate the First Amendment./p |
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Madoff trustee sues Madoff family for almost $200M
Legal World News |
2009/10/02 15:46
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| pPresident BaracBernard Madoff's brother, sons and a niece used the family finance business like a piggy bank, a court-appointed trustee charged Friday as he demanded in a lawsuit that they return almost $200 million in money to be distributed to cheated investors./ppThe trustee, Irving Picard, sought $198.7 million from Madoff's brother, Peter, who had worked at Madoff's Manhattan investment company since 1965, and sons, Mark and Andrew./ppAlso sued was Shana D. Madoff, Bernard Madoff's niece and Peter Madoff's daughter./ppLawyers for the Madoff's brother and sons did not immediately return a phone call for comment. A message for comment left at Shana Madoff's East Hampton home was not immediately returned./ppLawyers for Picard said in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that Madoff's family-run business was operated as if it were the family piggy bank./ppThey said each of the family members withdrew huge sums of money to fund personal business ventures and to pay for expenses ranging from multimillion dollar homes, cars and boats to monthly credit card charges for restaurants, vacations and clothing./ppThe lawyers said $141 million identified as fraudulent proceeds were received by the family members in the six years before Madoff surrendered and revealed his plot last December while at least $58 million was received in the last two years./p |
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Lawsuit Alleges ER Doctor Let Man Die In Order to Steal His Rolex
Legal World News |
2009/09/28 10:24
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A jaw-dropping lawsuit filed last week in San Francisco Superior Court alleges an emergency room doctor abandoned his attempts to resuscitate a patient from cardiac arrest to instead pocket the dead man's valuable Rolex wristwatch.
The suit, filed by the adult children of Jerry Keith Kubena, Sr., alleges that Dr. Cleveland James Enmon on June 1 formed the intent to swipe the Rolex from Kubena's wrist while treating the man at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Stockton (as this is a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West, the lawsuit was filed here).
After Kubena went into cardiac arrest, Defendant Enmon assumed responsibility for resuscitating descendant [Kubena], reads the suit. Once defendant Enmon formed the intent to steal decedent's watch, he abandoned his efforts to resuscitate decedent, leaving decedent to die so that he would not be around to reclaim his watch.
According to the suit, Enmon's alleged theft was as clumsily executed as it was heartless:
The nursing staff assisting Enmon soon noticed that Kubena's flashy timepiece was missing; Where is the wristwatch? the suit quotes one as uttering. Two more nurses allegedly noticed a wristwatch-shaped bulge in the doctor's pocket. Security was called to investigate the disappearance. Defying security's orders, the lawsuit notes Enmon walked out of the operating room and into the parking lot -- a move caught on hospital security cameras. |
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Parmalat lawsuits against BofA, auditor dismissed
Legal World News |
2009/09/21 12:38
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| pNEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge in Manhattan has dismissedthree Parmalat SpA fraud lawsuits against Bank of America Corp and theauditing firm Grant Thornton LLP over their roles in the Italian dairycompany's 2003 collapse./pspan id=midArticle_1/span pFriday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan is a setback forParmalat and its chief executive Enrico Bondi, who has filed dozens oflawsuits against banks and auditors, including Citigroup Inc and theauditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, for helping prior management loot thecompany./pspan id=midArticle_2/span pParmalat said in a statement that it believed the decision was erroneous, and that it intends to appeal./pspan id=midArticle_3/span pBurdened by about 14 billion euros ($20.6 billion) of debt, Parmalatfiled for insolvency protection in Italy in December 2003. It collapsedafter uncovering a 4 billion euro ($5.9 billion) hole in its balancesheet. Parmalat was restructured and relisted on the Milan bourse in2005, and Italian prosecutors filed criminal charges against variousexecutives./pspan id=midArticle_4/span pIn the current cases, Bondi and the unit Parmalat Capital FinanceLtd each sued Grant Thornton, accusing it of helping set up faketransactions to help insiders steal from the company./pspan id=midArticle_5/span pParmalat Capital made similar claims in a separate lawsuit againstBank of America, over transactions it said also generated more than$800 million for the Italian company./pspan id=midArticle_6/span pThe defendants argued, however, that they should prevail under alegal doctrine that prevents a company from recovering for its ownfraud./pspan id=midArticle_7/span pIn his 45-page opinion, Kaplan said Parmalat and Parmalat Capitalofficers had been acting within the scope of their employment when theyengaged in a massive fraud that ended with the company's collapse./pspan id=midArticle_8/span pHe rejected the plaintiffs' argument that the officers' looting andsquandering even a small portion of corporate assets would create anexception to the rule, and allow the new Parmalat to recover for theold Parmalat's wrongdoing./p |
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