People who settled with Chipotle over E. coli scare asked for more burritos

E. coli, norovirus, salmonella – no bouts of illness scared these loyal Chipotle patrons away from their beloved burritos.

Chipotle Mexican Grill settled 96 legal cases sparked when dozens of customers got sick in a string of foodborne outbreaks last year. While most people settled for cash payouts to cover their medical bills, one person asked for “free burrito” coupons.

The lawyer representing sickened clients said that some of his clients kept going back to the Mexican chain as their cases moved forward.

“In 25 years of doing foodborne illness cases, I’ve never had a client ask for coupons for the restaurant they had gotten sick at,” William Marler, a lawyer at Seattle’s Marler Clark, told the Denver Post.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In 25 years of doing foodborne illness cases, I've never had a client ask for coupons for the restaurant they had gotten sick at," William Marler, a lawyer at Seattle's Marler Clark, told the <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/09/chipotle-foodborne-illness-cases-settled/">Denver Post</a>.

He represented 97 Chipotle customers.

“In fact, some [clients] had gone back to the restaurant and they would call me and say, ‘Do you think it’s bad that I went back and got a burrito?’”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In fact, some [clients] had gone back to the restaurant and they would call me and say, 'Do you think it's bad that I went back and got a burrito?'"

One more case is still before the courts. For the most part, Marler’s clients received an undisclosed amount of cash for their troubles.

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Last year, Chipotle grappled with cases of E. coli, salmonella and norovirus across the United States. Chipotle’s website concedes there were 510 people sickened last year. In some outbreaks, more than 240 people would fall ill in one region, followed by another 140 people later, and states over.

In the cases Marler defended, illnesses were verified through medical tests carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to reports.

In the one of Marler’s cases, a 19-year-old client received about three dozen coupons for free burritos, reports say. The client was one of many who were not scared off by food poisoning.

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“More than just a few of them were pretty big fans of Chipotle. In fact a couple of them, during their case, told me they had gone back to Chipotle, which I thought was a little strange,” Marler told Business Insider.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "More than just a few of them were pretty big fans of Chipotle. In fact a couple of them, during their case, told me they had gone back to Chipotle, which I thought was a little strange," Marler told <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/09/13/hospitalized-chipotle-customer-asks-for-more-burritos-in-foodborne-illness/">Business Insider</a>.

“They have a following of especially 20-somethings that other restaurants don’t have. It’s a little odd but it probably says something positive about Chipotle,” he told the Post.

carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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