Salmonella Tainted Eggs Injure Thousands and Thousands

Chicago, ILAttorney Ken Moll thinks it is high time the egg farms of America cleaned up for good. "Salmonella enteritis is the leading cause of foodborne illness in this country," says Moll. "And most of those cases from shell eggs. Farmers have not done a good job of self-policing."

Moll's firm has just filed a nationwide class action against Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms that together are connected to the largest egg recall in the history of the US. "There have been approximately 1500 injuries. These are injures with blood samples and stool samples – samples that show absolutely this is same salmonella strain that was discovered on these egg farms."

And there could be hundreds, if not thousands, more cases of salmonella poisoning related to this outbreak that have gone unreported or untested, says Moll, whose firm just obtained an order allowing the egg farms to be inspected.

"It's huge. A lot of people were injured in this outbreak. Our office is being bombarded with calls. We have several people working on this day and night. I know we have had several calls related to deaths. This suit will represent all wrongful deaths and all injuries."

Moll calls the situation "egregious."

"Egg farmers have known for decades how to control salmonella contamination," he says. "You don't want rodents, birds, manure, and fleas near the hens or their feed."

But the eggs farms had all these problems and more, according to Moll. "For two years the farms' testing showed salmonella contamination. When that happens, they are supposed to act. But we have no evidence they changed anything or cleaned up anything. They not only violated rules their own rules, but violated state and federal laws as well.

"My clients are furious. Nowadays you would never expect to see conditions like we have heard about and read about on these farms.

"It is pretty bad. It is a very serious situation. These farms purposely looked the other way, I think all of this evidence may lead to us filing for punitive damages."

Hillandale and Wright County Egg have yet to respond to the suit.

Ken Moll is a personal injury lawyer based in Chicago. He handles foodborne illness cases, as well product and drug liability cases and mass torts.