The household of a 46-year-old Florida man has filed a wrongful demise and negligence lawsuit in opposition to one of many largest fast-casual restaurant chains within the U.S., claiming Panera Bread Firm’s caffeine-filled lemonade drink led to his demise.
David Brown had hypertension and didn’t drink vitality drinks, however the lawsuit stated he believed the Panera Charged Lemonade was secure because it was not marketed as an vitality drink. It was provided in the identical place because the restaurant chain’s non-caffeinated or less-caffeinated drinks, in response to the lawsuit filed Monday in Superior Court docket in Delaware, the place Panera Bread Firm is registered.
The lawsuit states that on Oct. 9, Brown had the drink 3 times throughout a go to to the Panera Bread Firm location in Fleming Island, Florida. On his stroll house, he suffered cardiac arrest and died a short while later. He had ordered a Panera Charged Lemonade not less than seven instances over the course of two weeks in September and October, in response to the lawsuit.
“Defendants knew or should have known that the Panera Charged Lemonade, as designed and formulated, once consumed, could injure children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people sensitive to caffeine by causing catastrophic injuries and/or death,” the lawsuit stated.
Nobody from Panera’s company workplaces responded to an inquiry looking for remark Tuesday afternoon.
Brown had a chromosomal deficiency dysfunction, developmental delays, some blurred imaginative and prescient and gentle mental incapacity, the lawsuit stated. He had labored for 17 years at Publix Super Markets and would recurrently go to the Panera restaurant after work for meals, as many as 3 times per week, as a result of the lawsuit stated he felt the chain marketed as being a wholesome various to different eating places.
One other wrongful demise lawsuit was filed in October by the household of 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a College of Pennsylvania scholar with a coronary heart situation who died in September 2022 after consuming the drink, in response to media experiences.
The privately-held Panera Bread Firm, which is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, operates in 48 U.S. states and Canada.
