Minneapolis, MN (February 13, 2009) Meagher & Geer’s client, Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), has filed for bankruptcy protection. The peanut-processing company at the center of a nationwide salmonella outbreak cited extensive product recalls — which some have referred to as the “largest in U.S. history” — as the catalyst for the Chapter 7 filing. Several consumers have also initiated civil lawsuits against the company, and a federal criminal investigation is ongoing.

In 2008, PCA’s 90 employees manufactured roughly 2.5 percent of the nation’s processed peanuts from plants in Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, resulting in sales of roughly $25 million. The federal investigation into the salmonella outbreak, which is alleged to have sickened some 600 people and resulted in eight deaths in 44 states, centered on the company’s now-shuttered Blakely, Georgia plant. Drawing on the firm’s significant experience defending local, regional, and national clients in food-borne illness litigation, a team of Meagher & Geer lawyers including Michael Hutchens, Marshall Lichty, Brad Lindeman, Lenae Pederson and Paula Weseman Theisen represented PCA in connection with the illness-related litigation stemming from the salmonella outbreak.