PRYOR Okla. Fourteen people who claim they were seriously sickened by E. coli O111 contracted last summer at the Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove, Okla., are suing the establishment and its owners for more than $3 million, their attorneys said.
Marler Clark of Seattle and The Blevins Law Firm of Pryor jointly filed the lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of 12 families in Mayes County District Court in Pryor. The complaint names as defendants Country Cottage, a “non-corporate business entity” and members of the family that runs it: Kenneth Dale Moore Sr., Linda Joyce Moore, Kenneth Dale Moore Jr., Cynthia R. Moore, Kelly Moore and several unidentified “John Doe” Moores.
In all, 341 people were sickened, including 70 who were hospitalized, in the August 2008 outbreak tied to the death of 26-year-old Chad Ingle of Pryor, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. State health officials in April said that while they identified Country Cottage as the common source of E. coli transmission in the outbreak, the “vehicle for contamination was never found.”
The Locust Grove restaurant closed in late August 2008 and didn’t reopen until late November 2008.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the suit are seeking at least $3 million in damages related to their clients’ past and future medical bills, unspecified punitive damages, court costs and legal fees.
The lawsuit filed this week is the second outbreak-related suit naming the restaurant and Moores as defendants. Attorneys for Donna Crafton, 72, who spent 21 days in the hospital because of E. coli complications after allegedly eating at Country Cottage, filed a lawsuit in March seeking actual and punitive damages exceeding $10,000.
A. Mark Smiling, a Tulsa attorney for the company insuring the restaurant, could not be reached by press time for comment about this week’s development.
The latest lawsuit accuses the operators of the Country Cottage of negligence and breach of warranty for allegedly serving food or drink contaminated with E. coli or otherwise contributing to the E. coli-related illnesses of the plaintiffs. The suit cites as the basis for punitive damages the restaurant operators’ alleged short-term use prior to the outbreak of a private water well that was in operation without required government permits.
“These fourteen people collectively spent 250 days in the hospital, 84 of them on dialysis for kidney failure,” attorney William D. Marler of Marler Clark said in a statement about the lawsuit. “Their medical bills are almost two million dollars, not to mention ongoing medical care that many will continue to need.”
Health officials have said that the O111 strain of E. coli is relatively rare and that the Oklahoma outbreak is now considered the largest documented case tied to that particular toxin-producing pathogen.
Contact Alan J. Liddle at [email protected].