The fast food chain company Chipotle has been sued by customers in a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in California on Jan. 19 and accuses Chipotle of serving infected and harmful food that led to customers falling sick, according to the Tri-County Sun Times.
The amount of damages sought in the suit is unknown. The seven plaintiffs, including a parent and six school students, have also asked for a trial by jury. They went to eat at a Chipotle restaurant in the month of August 2015 in Simi Valley, Calif., and they claim that they fell ill with norovirus after eating at this restaurant.
The lawsuit alleges that the infections probably came from a kitchen manager who had been sick at the time. It alleges that the kitchen manager started to show symptoms of his infection on Aug. 18, but despite this, the manger continued to handle food, utensils and equipment in the kitchen for two more days. When the manager eventually checked with a doctor, he was diagnosed with norovirus, according to Investment Underground.
The lawsuit states: "Chipotle chose...to try and conceal all evidence of the outbreak by disposing of all food items, bleaching all cooking and food handling surfaces and replacing its sick employees with replacement employees from other restaurants before notifying county health officials of the outbreak....Chipotle wanted to protect its stock price from plummeting by putting corporate profits ahead of public good," according to Consumerist.
A spokesperson for Chipotle refused to comment on this particular lawsuit specifically. The spokesperson said: "We do not discuss details surrounding pending legal actions."
