Tainted Baby Food Lawsuit Against Whole Foods, Hain Celestial Returned to Texas State Court

Several investigative reports have found elevated levels of metal contamination in baby food that could cause long term neurological side effects.

The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for a Texas couple to pursue a lawsuit against Hain Celestial Group in state court, which claims the company’s baby food is contaminated with dangerous levels of toxic metals.

Originally filed in Texas state court against Hain Celestial and Whole Foods Inc., the complaint was brought by Sara and Grant Palmquist, alleging that their child, E.P., developed physical and mental developmental problems due to consumption of baby food tainted with lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury. 

However, Hain Celestial Group moved the case to federal court and sought to dismiss Whole Foods Market Inc., which is headquartered in Texas. Hain Celestial Group then argued that because it would be the only remaining defendant, and is not based in Texas, the lawsuit should proceed in federal court instead of Texas state court.

Baby Food Metal Contamination Concerns

The Palmquists’ complaint and hundreds of similar toxic baby food lawsuits have been filed against manufacturers since the release of a 2021 Congressional report, which found high levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in a number of popular baby food products. 

The report warned that infant exposure to heavy metals may heighten the risk of autism and ADHD, as well as other cognitive and behavioral issues that can affect a child’s development and long-term health. 

Follow up testing in the years since has found little improvement, with independent analyses revealing that baby food sold by Gerber, Beech-Nut, Sprout, Walmart and other brands continues to contain potentially dangerous contamination levels.

Tainted Baby Food Lawsuit Returned to State Court

When a plaintiff files a civil lawsuit, they have the choice of filing in state or federal court. However, if none of the defendants are based in the same state as the plaintiffs, the defendant can then have that case removed from a state court to federal court.

In the Palmquists’ tainted baby food lawsuit, they originally listed Hain and Whole Foods as defendants. Whole Foods is based in Texas, as were the Palmquists, and thus they filed in state court.

Hain then sought to dismiss Whole Foods from the lawsuit, alleging that the company was improperly added to the lawsuit just to keep the case in Texas. The manufacturer then convinced a district judge to agree, which allowed the company to move the case to federal court. The case then proceeded to trial in federal court and that court granted Hain a motion for summary judgment, claiming the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence.

The Palmquists’ appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against Hain and vacated the summary judgment, saying Whole Foods was wrongly removed from the lawsuit and that it should have been decided in state court.

In an opinion (PDF) written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor on February 24, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Fifth Circuit’s decision and ordered the case back to state court as the Palmquists originally intended. The Supreme Court also vacated the prior judgment.

“The District Court’s erroneous dismissal of Whole Foods did not cure the jurisdictional defect that existed when this case was improperly removed to federal court. The Court of Appeals therefore correctly vacated the judgment in Hain’s favor.”

– U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

The ruling means that the previous verdict has been overturned and the lawsuit will be sent back to state court to proceed anew.

Tainted Baby Food Lawsuits

While the Palmquists’ complaint is headed back to Texas state court, most of the baby food lawsuits have been filed in federal courts, and centralized in the Northern District of California under U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who is presiding over a baby food lawsuit multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

To date, nearly 400 tainted baby food lawsuits have been filed in the federal MDL by families nationwide, each raising allegations that manufacturers exploited parents’ trust by marketing the products as safe, while concealing the presence of dangerous levels of toxic metals for years.

As part of the consolidated proceedings, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley is coordinating discovery and other pretrial matters across the claims. The court has also directed the parties to prepare a group of bellwether trials, which will serve as test cases to gauge how juries may respond to the evidence and testimony expected to be repeated throughout the trials.

In addition to the lawsuits consolidated in federal court, some families have filed claims in state courts, including the Palmquists’ case in Texas. Several cases are also moving forward in California state court, where the first trial is expected to begin later this year.

Although the cases are proceeding in different courts, the California trial is expected to be closely watched. Any jury verdict or damages award could shape settlement negotiations and influence how much manufacturers may ultimately pay to resolve the broader litigation.

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