Ice cream listeria class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Plaintiff Leslie Price filed a class action lawsuit against Totally Cool Inc.
- Why: Totally Cool allegedly failed to disclose its ice cream products may have been contaminated with listeria.
- Where: The Totally Cool class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court.
A new Totally Cool class action lawsuit alleges the company misleadingly labeled its products by failing to disclose they may be affected by ice cream listeria contamination.
Totally Cool manufactures and sells the following brands of ice cream: Friendly’s, Abilyns Frozen Bakery, Hershey’s, Yelloh!, Jeni’s, Cumberland Farms, The Frozen Farmer, Marco, Chipwich, AMAFruits, Taharka, Dolcezza Gelato and LaSalle.
Listeria monocytogenes poses potential serious and life-threatening health consequences, particularly for pregnant women, infants, the elderly and immunocompromised individuals, the Totally Cool class action lawsuit explains.
Totally Cool recalled the potentially listeria-contaminated products on June 25.
Plaintiff Leslie Price says consumers trust manufacturers to sell products that are free of harmful contamination that could potentially be life-threatening.
Ice cream listeria contamination may cause various types of infection including sepsis, meningitis, encephalitis, spontaneous abortion and other adverse health conditions, Price says.
“Moreover, infection causes a 95% hospitalization rate and has a high case fatality rate of 20%, making Listeria monocytogenes infection quite dangerous,” the Totally Cool class action says.
Totally Cool class action says recall precludes most consumers from getting refund
Price alleges Totally Cool’s ice cream listeria recall was “deliberately designed to preclude the vast majority of consumers” from receiving a refund.
To receive a refund, consumers should return recalled products to the place of purchase. Price notes most consumers who learn their ice cream may be contaminated by listeria would dispose of the product. Customers also frequently do not retain receipts and may not shop at the same stores so they may not know which store to return their products even if they still had the recalled ice cream in their possession.
Price claims she would not have purchased Totally Cool products had she known about the potential ice cream listeria contamination. She says she purchased more of and/or paid more for the products than she would have if she had known the truth about them.
The Totally Cool class action lawsuit asserts claims for violations of New York General Business Law and breach of express warranty.
Last summer, Van Leeuwen recalled more than 4,000 pints of Brown Sugar Chunk ice cream because they may have contained walnuts, an undeclared allergen.
What do you think about the allegations made in the Totally Cool class action? Join the discussion in the comments.
Price is represented by Jason P. Sultzer and Daniel Markowitz of Sultzer & Lipari PLLC and Nick Suciu III of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC.
The Totally Cool ice cream listeria class action lawsuit is Leslie Price v. Totally Cool Inc., Case No. 7:24-cv-04865, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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