Woman sues over salmonella she says she got eating catered food from Brighton taco place three days before it was ordered shut
An employee of an accounting firm in the Hancock Building today sued Los Amigos Tacos for what she says were the horrifying effects of eating salmonella-contaminated food from its Brighton Center outlet three days before Boston health inspectors ordered the place shut due to a salmonella outbreak.
In her suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Kiley Flammia says suffered numerous effects from her infection, including a high fever, extreme pain and swelling in her right knee and "reactive arthritis" in her right knew, right foot and left wrist. Her complaint says she also required hospitalization and cortisone shots, was unable to work for "protracted periods of time" and developed an eating disorder.
Flammia says she was one of 16 Ernst & Young employees who partook of a $504 worth of Los Amigos food on May 15, as part of a training session that day. The money paid for a 23-person "make your own taco bar" package that included both grilled chicken and grilled steak along with various fillings and an order of 20 cream-filled churros, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit says Flammia became violently ill less than 24 hours later, to the point where she went to an emergency room for care.
On May 18, city health inspectors ordered the restaurant shut after receiving numerous reports of patrons getting sick. They allowed it to re-open in June, then ordered it shut again two weeks later after an inspector found new problems. It has been open since July, city records show.
According to her complaint, Flammia has racked up $19,000 in medical bills and has lost $10,000 in wages to date.
The complaint alleges negligence, breach of warranty, breach of contract and unfair business practices under the state consumer-protection law, and seeks double or treble damages, plus attorneys' fees.
At least two other people who say they ate Los Amigos food sued a few days after the initial closing. In its answer to one of the suits, Los Amigos says, among other things, that it did nothing wrong and that even if it did, the person who claims she got sick was mainly to blame, only it didn't and if the person was not to blame, some third party was.
Complete complaint (1.1M PDF).
Complaint cover sheet, which includes a breakdown of costs (83k PDF).
Los Amigos answer to one of the earlier suits (447k PDF).
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Comments
Homer’s a delightful fella
Sorry about the salmonella!
Given that this was an
Given that this was an Employment Related Lunch shouldn't Workmen's Comp be on the hook for this?
Exactly...
Sorry that she'll never enjoy Taco Tuesday ever again
Next to impossible
to prove that they got sick from any food establishment.
The Boston Health lab results
and the hospital records make this look like a strong case
Sam and Ella are under constant state surveillance
The state lab takes samples and does genetic studies on what they find from patients, food workers, and food at the restaurants.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0048_article
It is about as impossible as it is to prove paternity.
Magoo sez
Same thing happened to Magoo. Magoo had diarrhea literally coming out of Magoo’s eyes. It ‘‘twas the most unusual not to mention disgusting yuck yuck thing that ever ever ever happened to Magoo. Magoo asks you to think about it. Diarrhea. Coming. Out. Of. One’s. Eyes. Oh. Magoo’s. Goody. Goodness. So. Gross. Period. Full. Stop. Magoo.
Can it, Magoo!
Usually I enjoy your mind-of-a-ten-year old bon mots, but this one goes beyond disgusting.
Knock it off! I beg of you!
Magoo had diarrhea literally coming out of Magoo’s eyes
Scary. Usually it's your keyboard.
Who...
...actually gives a thumbs-up to this feces-obsessed weirdo?
Wasn't even
Taco Tuesday.
May 15th was a Monday.
Shame, huh?
Did anybody else in her group get sick
There were 23 people - did anybody else from that group get sick?
Well...
I'd say that's good enough for me.
Not for me
Were those people in her group, eating the same food?
If not, it's too random. If nobody else in her group got sick, then I'd say sorry, honey.
She filed the lawsuit in a court of law
I don't see the need to litigate the details here, I'm sure the court process will go through all of these questions.
Ha! That's what we do here
Maybe you haven't noticed, but that's exactly what is done here - discuss details of random events, ad nauseum. Murders, assaults, crashes, masturbaters, RWNJ's, bike lanes, racists, city government, T, and even lawsuits - we beat those horses to death, and then some.
That's too funny, pal.
Not how this works anymore
See link, above. The two-by-two table is great EPI 101, but we aren't counting up how many people got sick versus didn't versus who ate what anymore - epidemiologists use genetic sequencing of the pathogen involved.
Also, dear, some people are resistant to the point of being nearly asymptomatic, others can die, just like with COVID. That's how the Clover outbreak got going - Typhoid Mary scenario amplified by poor food handling practices.
The bottom line is that each outbreak has a genetic "fingerprint". The state of the science (link above) is to sequence and match the genome of the specific strain involved.
If what she had and what the restaurant had match at a genetic level, then it doesn't matter how many people got sick - she can prove that her injuries came from that kitchen's food.
Sorry, sweetie!
Thanks for the info, cool stuff, honey
The usual swirly condescending tone was a bit much, but expected.
Wouldn't it be odd that only one out of 23 people got sick? I can understand a smaller party, but 23?
And for her case to have any meat, genetic sequencing would have to be done, right?
In other words,
SCIENCE Bitches!
.
.