EAST ST. LOUIS — A largemouth bass fish farm is suing Purina Animal Nutrition LLC and Texas Farms Products Company, fish food manufacturers, for alleged consumer fraud and breach of implied warranty.
Veath Fish Farm LLC of Evansville filed a complaint on March 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois alleging that the defendants failed their duty to exercise ordinary care in the design, formulation, manufacture, production, marketing, distribution and/or sale of its fish food products.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that in June 2015, plaintiff was not aware that fish food named AquaMax 500 and AquaMax 600 were transferred to defendant Texas Farms Products Company as manufacturers. Plaintiff claims that prior to the change of manufacturer, they had not experienced any significant problems with the products. After the transfer, the plaintiff alleges that the fish food was reformulated, altered or changed from its prior composition, causing a substantial amount of loss of its fish population from disease and death.
The plaintiff holds Purina and Texas Farms Products responsible because it allegedly failed to warn consumers that AquaMax 500 and AquaMax 600 fish food had been reformulated and failed to warn consumers that, as a result of the reformulation, those products were no longer safe and/or optimized for largemouth bass.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment for compensatory damages, punitive damages, costs and such further relief as the court deems just. The plaintiff is represented by William J. Niehoff, Mark S. Schuver and Melissa C. Meirink of Mathis, Marifian and Richter LTD in Belleville.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:17-cv-00303