A lawsuit that sought to find Pilgrim’s Pride liable for a COVID-19-related death of a worker was dismissed by a federal judge in Texas.
The family of Emily Hernandez had filed a suit against the company under Texas’ Pandemic Liability Protection Act (PLPA) – a law that was designed to establish how a company may be liable for exposing its employees to COVID-19.
Her family claimed that the company “negligently exposed Maria Hernandez to COVID-19 while she worked at one of Pilgrim’s poultry-processing plants in April of that year,” according to a KETK report.
Hernandez worked in the third processing section at the Pilgrim’s plant in Lufkin, Texas. Between April 20 and May 5, 2020, 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were found in the part of the plant where Hernandez worked. Court documents stated that these represented for 44% of total cases for the entire plant. She tested positive for the coronavirus on May 6 and passed away two days later.
Magistrate Judge Zack Hawthorn, with the Lufkin Division in the Eastern District of Texas, wrote that while a report found that it was “almost certain” that Hernandez contracted COVID-19 while working for Pilgrim’s Pride, the lawsuit failed to meet all the requirements of the PLPA to hold Pilgrim’s Pride liable for negligence in her death.
According to the judge, the Hernandez family had to either prove Pilgrim’s knowingly failed to warn Hernandez of conditions that would likely expose her to COVID-19 or knowingly disregarded applicable COVID-19 guidance that could lead to a COVID-19 infection. The proof that the family provided did not meet all of the requirements of the PLPA, Hawthorn ruled.
However, Hawthorn did state that the plant “knowingly failed to warn Hernandez about the concentration of COVID-19 in Third Processing” by not making employees aware of the more than a dozen positive cases in that area.
