A Baltimore County woman filed a civil lawsuit against Seven Mile Market and several ice cream producers on April 2 that states that her newborn baby died of a listeria infection and other listeria-related complications in November 2023 contracted from an item purchased at the supermarket.
The plaintiff, Tova Louie, is seeking up to $30 million from the defendants Seven Mile Market, Ice Cream House, Real Kosher Ice Cream and Leiby’s Dairy Inc. for negligence in the process of allegedly selling the contaminated product that caused the fatal listeria infection.
“Tova Louie is a plaintiff that was severely and permanently damaged by the actions of the defendants,” Louie’s attorney, Yehoshua Bier, said, according to court documents.
Seven Mile Market, located in Pikesville, is one of the largest kosher supermarkets in the country and carried the allegedly contaminated ice cream, which according to the lawsuit was co-produced by Ice Cream House, Real Kosher Ice Cream and Leiby’s Dairy Inc.
Tova purchased the 56-oz. tub of Klein’s Vanilla Fudge Ice Cream from Seven Mile Market on June 28, 2023, and consumed some of it around July 17, 2023, while 36 weeks pregnant with a healthy child, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Louie experienced worsening symptoms of sinus congestion, headaches and abdominal discomfort for the next three days after consuming the ice cream.
Louie went to urgent care with these symptoms and was sent home after testing negative for COVID and strep. But she ended up back in urgent care 11 days after consuming the ice cream and was diagnosed with acute bronchitis, the lawsuit said.
On July 29, 2023, the day after the bronchitis diagnosis, Louie went to the emergency room at Sinai Hospital with worsening symptoms and was put on a CPAP machine to assist with her breathing.
After monitoring Louie and the infant, the hospital conducted an emergency delivery procedure due to concerns over the health of both Louie and her baby, the lawsuit said.
According to notes from Sinai Hospital included in the complaint, after the delivery, the “infant was blue, limp, anemic,” and, “At 10 minutes of life, infant started to have spontaneous respiration and improvement in color but continued to be limp without movement.”
On July 31, 2023, the patients were transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital due to the severity of the infant’s condition. Blood tests at the hospital uncovered the listeria infection, which had passed from Louie to the infant in utero, the lawsuit said.
Despite the hospital’s efforts, the infant died from the listeria infection and other listeria-related complications on Nov. 8, 2023.
“As a direct and proximate result of the defendant’s negligent acts, Mrs. Louie herself suffered physically for months, both due to the physical manifestation of the listeria infection as well as the painful and traumatic vacuum [from the] assisted birth and its related complications,” Bier said, according to the court documents.
Bier added that Louie has suffered emotional, psychological and physical pain due to the grief of losing her newborn.
In July 2023 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA and New York and Pennsylvania state agencies investigated a listeria outbreak traced back to Ice Cream House.
FDA testing found seven of eight Ice Cream House product samples collected on July 27, 2023, came back positive for listeria, according to an FDA warning letter sent to Ice Cream House on Sept. 24, 2024.
The lawsuit said Ice Cream House voluntarily recalled all dairy and nondairy products on June 28, 2023, the day Louie purchased the allegedly contaminated ice cream, but the first public disclosure of the recall came on Aug. 30, 2023.
The lawsuit said that the Aug. 30, 2023, recall notice listed “Premium Ice Cream Quart/ Vanilla Fudge” as one of the recalled products, adding that that was the product Louie consumed.
The lawsuit also alleges that the defendants have not changed their behavior in regard to ensuing sanitary conditions for warehouses and manufacturing for customer safety and said the defendants are “egregiously flouting the law.”
Two separate FDA inspections have found strains of listeria in the Ice Cream House manufacturing facilities, with the most recent inspection taking place from Feb. 21 to March 26, 2024.
“During our inspection of your facility, FDA investigators found serious violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation,” the FDA wrote in the warning letter.
The FDA added that it determined Ice Cream House’s ready-to-eat ice cream products were “prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or been rendered injurious to health.”
The lawsuit asks the court to find a judgement against the producers for various counts including negligence, violating duty of care, breach of duty, breach of warranty and product liability.
Regarding Seven Mile Market, the lawsuit said that the supermarket had previously and was currently “flaunting on noncompliance with the FDA.”
Seven Mile still carries Real Kosher Ice Cream products, under the name Klein’s Real Kosher.
