Lawsuits against Boar’s Head stack up; three new suits filed

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In the wake of the listeria outbreak that occurred at the Boar’s Head plant in Jarratt, VA in July 2024 which caused 10 people to die and 59 to be hospitalized, numerous lawsuits have been filed against the company, including three new suits today.

The listeria outbreak was traced back to liverwurst manufactured at the plant, which employed approximately 500 employees, by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service. The plant was closed permanently by the company in September and the company recalled 71 products from its deli line. According to the CDC, the listeria outbreak is the largest since 2011 and affected people in 19 states.

Günter “Garshon” Morgenstein, 88, was the third of 10 people to die from the outbreak on July 18. He lived in Newport News, Va. His family is now suing Boar’s Head. 

Morgenstein’s family has said that Mr. Morgenstein ate liverwurst, usually spread on bagels, and bought it regularly, insisting on the Boar’s Head brand because he believed it was top quality. They said he ate it within a few days before he was rushed to the hospital where he would die 10 days later.

Likewise, Barbara Schmidt, a 76-year-old Williamsburg, Va. woman, became ill after eating Boar’s Head liverwurst and spent nearly a week in intensive care. She is suing for $11 million.

Today, Oct. 22, three more lawsuits were filed against Boar’s Head – including two filed in the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of Tennessee resident Robert E. Ohly, 89, and another on behalf of Pennsylvania resident Linda Dorman, 74. Both died from listeria after consuming Boar’s Head deli meat. The Marler Clark law firm is representing the families.

To date, seven lawsuits have been filed against the company for the listeria outbreak.

Inspection reports from USDA showed the following observations at the Boar’s Head plant between 2023 and 2024: 

January – “A black mold-like substance was seen throughout the room at the wall/concrete junction. As well as some caulking around brick/metal,” an inspector wrote in January, noting that some spots were “as large as a quarter.”

February – An inspector found “ample amounts of blood in puddles on the floor” and a “rancid smell” throughout a cooler used at the plant. Several records also flag sightings of insects in and around deli meats at the plant, including one instance that prompted the agency to tag more than 980 pounds of ham in a smokehouse hallway to be “retained” for an investigation.

June – A report flagged concerns over flies going in and out of “vats of pickle” left in a room. “Small flying gnat-like insects were observed crawling on the walls and flying around the room. The rooms’ walls had heavy meat buildup,” the report notes. Other parts of the facility were also found to have bugs, including cockroaches and beetles as well as “ants traveling down the wall.”

July – Federal inspectors found mold and mildew around the hand washing sinks for the workers tasked with handling meats that are supposed to be ready to eat. Mold was found outside of steel vats used by the plant and in holding coolers between the site’s smokehouses. “A black mold-like substance was seen throughout the room at the wall/concrete junction. Leaking and pooling water, including a puddle found with “a green algal growth” and condensation that was “dripping over product being held.” These leaks were near fans that appeared to be blowing the liquid onto uncovered deli meats.

Despite the numerous repeat safety violations, the USDA continued to allow the plant to remain open and operate. News Nation reported that the USDA knew of “imminent threats” of food contamination two years before the listeria outbreak.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) requested USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong open an investigation into the agency’s handling of repeated sanitary violations on Oct. 15.

On Sept. 26, Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) wrote to USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on USDA to work closely with DOJ to determine whether to bring criminal charges against Boar’s Head for their responsibility in the outbreak. Blumenthal and DeLauro also urged USDA to strengthen its listeria prevention protocols and investigate other Boar’s Head locations for safety violations.

Litany of lawsuits

Boar’s Head has also faced lawsuits alleging sexual harassment as far back as 1996.

In a lawsuit filed by Bernadette Scelta in 1999, she alleged consistent sexual harassment by a supervisor from 1996 onward which resulted in her being refused for promotions and subjected to a wide variety of overtly hostile interactions.

Again in 2019, LaTisha Breeden, who worked in customer service for the Groveport, Ohio plant from 2016 to 2017, filed a lawsuit alleging claims for sexual harassment, and a hostile work environment based on sex/gender discrimination. Because the details are extremely indecent, All Virginia News will not repeat them in this story.

At a distribution warehouse for Boar’s Head in Groveport, Ohio a 2019 lawsuit alleged severe racial discrimination and a culture in which Black employees were frequently passed over for promotions. 

Warehouse worker Eric Williams alleged racial discrimination and described a culture in which “Boar’s Head favors non-African Americans in promotions, and an employee’s race has a substantial impact on the decision whether to promote them.”

Despite being “one of the most experienced, longest tenured” workers at the facility, Williams, then 47, claims he was passed over for a promotion six times between 2015 and 2018. A worker the company promoted instead, according to the complaint, made racial jokes and slurs. 

Often, workers selected over Williams had been in the position for months compared to Williams’ years. In one case, the white person promoted over Williams had worked for the company for 90 days, even though it was Boar’s Head policy that employees cannot be promoted until they have worked for at least six months.

When Williams finally got promoted in 2018, it was only a month before he was demoted back to the warehouse floor. According to the complaint, management said they, “needed him because the productivity numbers were too low when he was in the office.” 

Williams filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2018 and claimed he was fired in retaliation. Williams’ case went into mediation and settled in 2020. Williams has relayed his story to Forbes Magazine.

Moreover, at a processing plant in Arkansas, two women alleged Boar’s Head fired them while they were recuperating separately for medical conditions, leaving them without health insurance or a way to pay their medical bills. They filed suit against the company in 2020 and settled out of court.

There is also the ongoing case involving Jacob Harris, a plumber from Cross County, Arkansas. In August 2022, the Boar’s Head facility in Forrest City called Harris to repair a clogged drain at its plant. Harris said he was not told by anyone at Boar’s Head that he would be coming in contact with toxic chemicals in the drain. 

Harris said he suffered severe toxic burns to his body including scarring and disfigurement, and believes Boar’s Head is negligent. His lawsuit is scheduled for trial in April 2025.

Even the owners of Boar’s Head have sued each other in 2005 over corporate shares. The lawsuit was settled in 2008. A New York Times article chronicles those details in a fascinating article here.

Audrey Carpenter is the Northern Virginia Bureau Chief for All Virginia News. She can be contacted at: audreycarpenter@allvirginia.news