Taco Bell may pay millions to settle
The Morning Call reports that Taco Bell may be reaching a settlement in their E. coli outbreak class action lawsuit.
“We've got a promise from Taco Bell that it will immediately mediate these cases,” said William Marler, who represents 20 clients who say Taco Bell's food made them ill. “I'm going to sit down with them in the next 30 days and try to resolve them. If we can't come to an agreement, we can refile the cases. Every indication I've had from Taco Bell lawyers is that they want to seriously sit down and get these cases resolved.”
Based on past food poisoning cases he's successfully argued, Marler believes each victim could receive at least tens of thousands of dollars for medical bills and other damages. He said he has resolved close to $300 million worth of food poisoning cases in 15 years.
Those who may have been hospitalized for a short period and did not develop complications can receive from $25,000 or $30,000 to half a million dollars depending on the severity of the case,'' Marler said. ''Any case where someone develops severe health problems could be worth multiple millions of dollars.''
Marler pointed to one ''severe'' case in which he claims a Pennsylvania woman was in a coma for at least three days and suffered kidney damage caused by E. coli. That woman is still being cared for by multiple doctors. Marler said the woman suffers from a form of kidney failure known as hemolytic urenic syndrome, which, according to the CDC, is a life-threatening condition that is often treated with blood transfusions and kidney dialysis.
My husband and I have had problems in the past (about 3 months ago) with a particular Taco Bell in our area. My husband is physically disabled and upon one of our visits to this location, the employees laughed at, mocked his voice and made fun of his appearance openly in front of him. He is also allergic to onions and request his food each time to be made w/o onions. Each time they would put handfuls of onions into his food, resulting in it being returned and replaced w/o incident. The day the employees taunted and made fun of my disabled husband, we decided it was time to involve the district manager since the general manager of the store was involved in the teasing.
The issues were apparently "dealt with" and taken very serious by the district manager. In fact out of all of the employees involved, only one (the general manager) still actively works there.
We have since gone there w/o any issues or problems, other than one time in which they forgot to give me a taco we ordered. We had it replaced the next time......no problem.
On 4/24/07 at approx. 11:43pm, my husband placed a order with them indicating that he did not want onions. In fact, on my receipt it shows only extra beef to be added to the particular item in question, a taco salad. He was told that onions do not come on it. When he returned home with our order, they did not secure the lid to the taco salad, so when I reached in to pull it out, it fell all inside the bag, and some onto the floor. We decided that the 10 sec. Rule applied to the part that fell inside the bag and were going to eat it, until I smelled the stench of very strong onions. I noticed ALOT of onions placed in the taco salad. I called the restaurant. I was not able to get a answer until the 3rd time I called, at which point it was obvious that the person on the phone had been on the other line. I asked "were you on the phone with a customer or a personal call because I have been trying to call for 5-10 minutes. " she replied "uh uh uh uh uh uh, yes, with a cus...I mean, I was trying to get a ride." I asked to speak with the manager. She indicated she was the manager. I told her " I don't think so, who is in charge?" she said to wait and another lady, Alejandra came onto the phone. I explained what had happened. She then yelled at me telling me " I made that taco salad and there are NO green onions on it!" I stated, " yes, you are correct, there are not green onions on it, there are dozens of diced white onions." she then replied "you're lying" I then responded "Look, I'll bring the damn thing up there and let you see it for yourself."She replied (after screaming at me and calling me a liar) that she did not have to "tolerate " my language and hung up. At that point, my husband called back and told her that I would be bringing the taco salad back and we would like our money back and that we would be dealing again with the district manager. She agreed that she would refund the money when she was told I was coming now to return it. Upon my arrival, I pulled into the drive thru and all of a sudden all the lights were shut off. I honked. No response. Waited, honked again this time, two employees began walking by waving and saying they were closed. I indicated I was there to return the taco salad and they began laughing. I then pulled around to the front of the store and at that time I got out with my cell phone and receipt in my left hand, and the bag with the taco salad in my right hand. I walked up to the glass door at which time an employee stated " what bitch? I'll kick your fucking ass" I told her as I pointed up to the camera inside the store that she was being recorded and she looked up at the camera, looked back at me like "oh shit....what did I say that for???!!!" she then said, "I'm just going to the bathroom." I said "it's too late, it's caught on camera." She then said "Well, I'll just call the cops." I said, "no, I will". And I did. The cops arrived at my request and confirmed there were onions (what appeared to be several handfuls) placed in the taco salad. I was issued a "criminal trespass" at the general manager's request because the police officer's hands were tied. Since this ordeal, the corporate offices and the owner of this Taco Bell are still allowing this individual to continue working dispite these serious allegations and the owner is not understanding our concern for the well being of other customers with the malicious acts committed by the general manager "as per her own confession" We need help. Please, please help us. This manager's actions could have killed my husband if he would have bitten into the taco salad as well as her direct threat to cause me bodily injury. I am willing as is my husband, to go on camera.