Banquet hall will pay E. coli victims 1 million in pay outs

July 20, 2005
Mississauga News Online
Louie Rosella
http://www.mississauga.com/mi/news/story/2924093p-3388140c.html 

The former owners of a Mississauga, Ont. banquet hall will, according to this story, pay out as much as $1 million to high school students and other guests who became ill with E. coli poisoning.

The story says that the financial amount will be divided among at least 150 people and is part of a settlement reached this week during a class action lawsuit, adding that under the terms of the settlement, Trillium must pay students and others guests that attended various events at the hall between June 25-29, in 2003, and became infected with E. coli.

The proposed settlement was quoted as saying that Trillium agreed to put up $1 million in insurance, available to "all persons who attended at Trillium Banquet Hall between June 25, 2003 and June 29, 2003 and all persons who were secondarily infected with E. coli as a result of contact with a person who attended (the hall between the same dates)."

Complainants will be paid on a scale of $500-$5,000 depending on the severity of the infection, according to the proposed settlement.

A person who was sick for three days gets $500, while a person who displayed symptoms for more than a month receives $5,000.

A superior court judge will hold an approval hearing on Aug. 15, when he will review the settlement in a Brampton courtroom.

During their investigation, Peel health officials determined the source of the E. coli infection in the students to be the meal served at the banquet hall.

Trillium's lawyer, Steven Stieber, was cited as saying the hall's insurer apologized "on behalf of the banquet hall," to those who were infected and their families.

"We feel this is a fair and reasonable settlement."