BELLEVILLE – Quaker Oats substituted Circuit Judge Christopher Kolker from a potential class action about the number of servings in its packages.
Quaker Oats counsel Beth Bauer of Hepler Broom in Edwardsville moved for substitution on Jan. 4, and Kolker granted it on Jan. 6.
He referred the action to Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson, who hadn’t assigned a judge as of Jan. 13.
Any party in Illinois can substitute a judge once without cause if the judge hasn’t made a substantial ruling.
Plaintiff Heather Erwin of Millstadt sued Quaker in November, claiming she wouldn’t have bought its oats or would have paid less if she knew the labels were false.
Her counsel David Nelson of Belleville proposes to certify her as representative of all current Illinois citizens who bought nine particular packages.
He stated she bought oats at Schnuck’s on North Belt West, Wal-Mart at Green Mount Commons, and Dollar General in Millstadt.
“Testing reveals that the stated number of servings is inaccurate,” Nelson wrote.
“On its old fashioned oats 18 ounce containers, Quaker’s labels claim either 13 or about 13 servings.
“The true number of one half cup servings in those containers is closer to ten than thirteen.”
He claims labels on 42 ounce containers of old fashioned oats claimed 30 or about 30 but the true number was closer to 26.
He claims Quaker Oats based nutrition information on inaccurate numbers.
“Quaker substantially underreports the actual caloric and other nutritional information in every serving of oats,” he wrote.
“Quaker thus compounds its misrepresentations by leading consumers to consume more than they want or need.”
He filed the complaint in association with Missouri lawyers Matthew Armstrong of Brentwood and John Azimi of Independence, and with Stuart Cochran of Dallas.