Dairy Cleared of Liability in 1985 Listeriosis Cases

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury Friday found that Alta-Dena Certified Dairy will not have to share financial liability for nearly $100 million in unsettled claims filed by victims of a listeriosis epidemic that killed 48 people and sickened hundreds of others in 1985.

In an 11-1 verdict reached after 3 1/2 days of deliberations, the jury spurned arguments by now-defunct Jalisco Mexican Products Inc. of Artesia that raw milk supplied by Alta-Dena to make cheese was infected with listeria bacteria.

“I feel the Lord has answered our prayers,” said Alta-Dena founder Harold Stueve, 71, in a brief telephone interview. “We had nothing to do with this case in the first place.”

‘On Cloud Nine’

Attorney Raymond A. Novell, who represented Alta-Dena in the case, said: “This was strictly an issue between two companies. Jalisco looked around for deep pockets and sued us. . . . I’m on cloud nine.”

Gary McPherson, former owner of Jalisco, would only say: “We lost. We will finish settling.”

Still, the verdict may have extinguished chances that families of those killed and children born with birth defects will receive full compensation for their injuries, said Kim Miller, an attorney for more than 100 plaintiffs who watched the case from the sidelines.

“I’m surprised that it came out this way. We really believed that the milk contained the bacteria when it left Alta-Dena,” Miller said. Now, she added, “a lot of the significantly injured plaintiffs will have to take small compensations. There will not be enough funds to properly compensate these victims from Jalisco or its insurance proceeds.”

‘Small Insurance Policy’

Miller said the problem is that “Jalisco had a small insurance policy to begin with--about $10 million--almost three-fourths of which has already been depleted in settlements of claims.”

An investigation led by researchers from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta counted 142 cases of listeriosis between Jan. 1 and Aug. 15, 1985. The deaths included 20 fetuses, 10 newborns and 18 adults.

McPherson and cheese maker Jose Luis Medina both pleaded no contest in 1986 to misdemeanor criminal charges. They were sentenced to 30 days and 60 days, respectively, in Los Angeles County Jail. They were fined a total of about $48,000.

Throughout the trial, presided over by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Lavine, Jalisco attorney Roy Brisbois used expensive models, video presentations and testimony from medical and food scientists to prove that the cheese was infected by Alta-Dena’s unpasteurized raw milk.

Brisbois’ direct evidence of a link between the milk and epidemic, however, was based largely on the fact that the same strain of bacteria that contaminated the cheese was found after the outbreak in a carton of Alta-Dena sour cream taken from a truck at a local dump. The same bacteria turned up in a sample of caseinate--which is used to make sour cream--taken from an Alta-Dena warehouse.

The same strain of bacteria was also found in body fluid taken from an elderly man who consumed only Alta-Dena raw milk before he died of cancer in 1982. While the incident occurred three years before the listeriosis outbreak, health officials said it constituted direct evidence to back up the discovery of listeria in the carton of Alta-Dena sour cream.

“The only common link is the milk. . . . It’s the only explanation that makes sense,” Brisbois insisted in final remarks to the jury. “I’m asking you to agree with the best scientific minds in the government that we are right.”

But Novell, in his final remarks, called Brisbois’ evidence “the three sows’ ears of epidemiology” and blamed the epidemic on “filthy conditions at the Jalisco plant.”

He pointed out that listeria was never detected in milk produced by Alta-Dena’s herds. Between Dec. 1, 1984, and June 30, 1985, Alta-Dena also supplied 26 million gallons of milk to 30 customers. Only Jalisco had a problem, Novell said. These facts weighed heavily in Alta-Dena’s favor during deliberations, members of the jury said.

Said juror Dina DiBella, 27, of South Gate: “There just wasn’t enough evidence to prove that the milk was contaminated before it got to the Jalisco plant.”

With the trial over, Stueve--who sold Alta-Dena in February to the American subsidiary of a French firm--said he and his two brothers plan to devote their time to producing and distributing Stueve’s Natural raw certified milk.