> I think there is a way to distinguish between blanket liability any time someone gets sick eating your product, and suing Boar's Head for continuing to operat

> I think there is a way to distinguish between blanket liability any time someone gets sick eating your product, and suing Boar's Head for continuing to operate with deficiencies that were documented in a report and known to the company. I would generally expect the latter to be accomplished by regulatory fines; it's simpler and cleaner than an array of individual civil suits. The greater issue is that I'd be very surprised if many of those civil suits were effective, and especially so for being cost effective (for either side). Citizens will need to prove beyond a preponderance of evidence that their relative's infection was due to Boar's Head, which is going to be very difficult. Everyone is exposed to dozens of potential Listeria sources every day; it's hard to prove it was Boar's Head and not Chipotle or McDonald's or whatever else they've eaten/touched. It genuinely probably makes more sense to do a regulatory fine on Boar's Head, and then distribute the fine to affected people via a mechanism with a lower bar. Maybe everyone who had a Listeria infection around that time, which is much easier to prove than the source of the infection.