Listeriosis: settlement offers made to claimants

IN A BID to resolve the listeriosis class action lawsuit stemming from the 2017 outbreak, which resulted in the loss of 218 lives including babies, Tiger Brands has presented settlement offers to some of the affected claimants.

- MONISHKA GOVENDER

The outbreak started at Tiger Brands Enterprise Foods facility in Polokwane facility in 2017/18.

In 2018, Kyle, 31, and Amelia Victor, 33, from the KZN South Coast made the heart-breaking decision to take their daughter, Summer, off life support.

She had contracted listeriosis while still in the womb after her mother had eaten contaminated polony. The couple had joined the class action.

In a statement, Tiger Brands confirmed that "the attorneys representing its lead reinsurer (QBE Insurance Group Limited) have presented a settlement offer to the plaintiffs' attorneys as part of a road-map to a possible overall resolution of the listeriosis class action".

They said that those who suffered the following damage as a result of listeriosis caused by genotype L1-SL6ST6-CT4148 of Listeria monocytogenes (ST6) would receive settlement offers:

1. Claimants who contracted (or whose mothers contracted) listeriosis caused by ST6;

2. Claimants whose legal breadwinners, on whom they were legally dependent, died of listeriosis caused by ST6.

3. Claimants whose legal dependents, who were in their care, and who contracted listeriosis caused by ST6.