Lawyers Inspect Hillandale Egg Plant
Cars filled with lawyers drive into the Hillandale Egg Farm facilities in West Union, Iowa Thursday Sept. 30, 2010. The farm was inspected by several groups of lawyers looking for violations that will be used as part of a lawsuit being filed for their part in the recent salmonella outbreak. (Becky Malewitz/ SourceMedia Group News)
By
Aaron Hepker
Story Created:
Sep 30, 2010 at 11:11 AM CDT
Story Updated:
Sep 30, 2010 at 6:08 PM CDT
WEST UNION, Iowa - Inspectors are at the Eastern Iowa farm that is linked to a nationwide recall of more than half a billion eggs and many salmonella cases.
As of now, Hillandale farms has not put its eggs back on the market.
The farms are off highway 18, two miles west of West Union.
National law firms involved in the salmonella outbreak traced to Iowa egg producers are gathering evidence this morning.
A Hillandale farms egg plant, just outside West Union, is one linked to the bacterial outbreak. The plant, along with others, have recalled more than 500 million eggs over contamination concerns.
Three law firms specializing in food poisoning cases are on site right now inspected the facilities and documenting what they find for future court cases.
Ron Simon says his Texas law firm now represents 150 people nationwide claiming they got salmonella poisoning from either this Hillandale egg plant or eggs that came from Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa.
Both Simon's firm and two other law groups arrived for a court-ordered appointment to inspect the West Union plant. The group went on site at about ten o'clock Thursday morning. The lawyers have experts who will look for health laws in West Union, documented by a FDA report. Photographers will record what they find for lawsuits.
Simon says, "Those reports document a long term history of horrible conditions. It takes a long time to get an eight foot tall pile of manure in your chicken house. Those are things that sat for a long period of time and allowed conditions to deteriorate so we now have a national outbreak that has sickened 1,600 people."
The court order allowing Thursday's inspection by attorneys also required the owner to leave facilities as is so all sides have a fair view of conditions.
The lawyers, though, expect to see signs that Hillandale has tried to seal rodent holes and correct some violations found by FDA inspector, but they also expect to see lots of evidence that they will use in court.
More Good Stuff
Conversation Guidelines
Be Kind
Don't use abusive, offensive, threatening, racist, vulgar or sexually-oriented language.
Don't attack someone personally. Keep it civil and be responsible.
Share Knowledge
Be truthful. Share what you know and what you are passionate about.
What more do you want to learn? Keep it simple.
Stay focused
Promote lively and healthy debate. Stay on topic. Ask questions and give feedback on the story's topic.
Report Trouble
Help us maintain a quality comment section by reporting comments that are offensive. If you see a comment that is offensive, or you feel violates our guidelines, simply click on the "x" to the far right of the comment to report it.
read the full guidelines here »
Commenting will be disabled on stories dealing with the following subject matter: Crime, sexual abuse, property fires, automobile accidents, Amber Alerts, Operation Quickfinds and suicides.
Most Popular >>