Four Lawsuits Filed Against Maple Leaf Foods Over Tainted Meat

August 27, 2008 7:17 a.m. EST

Toronto, Ontario (AHN) - Four separate class-action lawsuits were filed Tuesday against Maple Leaf Foods over its tainted meat which has caused the death of at least 12 persons in Canada.

The cases were filed by Merchant Law Group of Alberta, which specializes in class-action suits. The law firm filed the lawsuits in Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. It will file more suits against Maple Leaf within the week.

A damage of $350 million was asked in the Ontario suit on behalf of representative plaintiffs Arthur Cole and Donna Hyland. Montreal couple Juanita Melvin and Thomas Guay were the representative plaintiffs for the Quebec lawsuit filed Tuesday. The couple ate Maple Leaf sliced turkey and ham and became sick.

The Saskatchewan lawsuit had three representative plaintiffs: Janine Bellegard, Michelle Whelan and Nat Dvernichuk. Bellegard also consumed sliced turkey, Whelan ate a Boston Pizza roast beef and other Maple Leaf meats, while Dvernichuk had smoked turkey breast.

For the British Columbia case, the lawsuit had Leanne Murrell as representative plaintiff.

Meanwhile, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said the death toll from listeria has climbed to 12 from four. Of the 12 fatalities, 11 were from Ontario.

According to lawyer Tony Merchant from the law firm handling the four lawsuits, his office had received 23 to 30 calls every hour since Thursday from Canadian residents who have been affected by the tainted meat from Maple Leaf Foods.

The meat recall and plant clean-up is expected to cost the 100-year old meat processor over $20 million. Following the filing of the lawsuits and the meat recalls, Maple Leaf's share plunged six percent on Tuesday by $0.60 to $8.20 a share at the Toronto Stock Exchange at the mid-day trading. Since the listeria outbreak last week, the embattled food company's stock had tumbled down 21 percent.