By JOE MANDAK
Associated Press Writer
August 2, 2004, 5:24 PM EDT
PITTSBURGH — Chi-Chi’s is suing food wholesalers in an effort to get them to help pay for scores of hepatitis A-related lawsuits as it continues to settle its own lawsuits.
The Mexican restaurant chain has settled 134 of the more than 300 lawsuits filed by people sickened after eating at a Pennsylvania restaurant last fall, said Chi-Chi’s attorney David Ernst. The outbreak, traced to green onions, sickened 660 people and killed four.
Late last month, Chi-Chi’s, owned by Irvine, Calif. based Prandium Inc., filed suit against three suppliers — Castellini Co. of Wilder, Ky.; Sysco Corp. of Houston; and one of Sysco’s subsidiaries, Sygma Network Inc. of Lakewood, Colo.
“We have tried for months to get those companies to voluntarily step up to the plate and help the victims. They’re refusing to do so and we’re continuing to do so … so we’ve had to sue them,” Ernst said Monday.
Some of victims required liver transplants, though none of the cases Chi-Chi’s settled involved deaths or critical injuries.

Ernst wouldn’t give a specific amount, but said Chi-Chi’s has spent “seven figures” on settlements, which are being channeled through a court-approved mediation process. Because Chi-Chi’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a few weeks before the outbreak — due to cash-flow problems — a bankruptcy judge had to approve the mediation process and must also OK any individual lawsuit settlements of $35,000 or more.
Ernst said about a dozen of the settlements were $35,000 or larger. The money Chi-Chi’s paid to settle those suits is in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in smaller payments Chi-Chi’s made to cover the out-of-pocket medical expenses of those who got sick.
It also doesn’t include the restaurant chain’s business losses. Chi-Chi’s had 122 restaurants in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast before the outbreak, and now has 65, the lawsuit states.
Federal and state health officials traced the hepatitis outbreak to Mexican-grown green onions that Chi-Chi’s used in salsa and as a garnish on dishes at its Beaver Valley Mall restaurant in September and October.
Chi-Chi’s claims in its breach-of-warranty lawsuit that those onions were supplied by Castellini, a fruit and vegetable wholesaler, and sold to Chi-Chi’s through Sysco or Sygma. Chi-Chi’s negotiated onion prices with Castellini, and then bought them through the other defendants, the lawsuit states.
Castellini officials didn’t immediately return telephone messages left Monday.
Toni Spigelmyer, a Sysco spokesman, said the company “followed all applicable standards and FDA requirements” in supplying the onions.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press