Victorian family sue Subway claiming son died from eating cookie
A GRIEF-stricken Victorian couple is suing Subway for damages, claiming their son, 15, died from eating one of the fast food chain’s biscuits.
Jack Irvine, 15, was attending a go-karting camp in Oakleigh on September 24, 2012, when he suffered a fatal allergic reaction to nuts.
His parents, Robert and Julie, and his sisters, Sally Ann and Louise, are suing the fast-food chain, its Clayton South franchise, and the Victorian Karting Association in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The family alleges that a camp participant registration form, which was filled out on Jack’s behalf, specified that he was allergic to nuts.
They claim he suffered a severe anaphylactic reaction after eating biscuits that, unknown to him, contained nuts — biscuits that were provided by camp organisers at lunch.
Jack died in hospital a week afterwards.
His grieving father, Robert, claims that he has suffered severe psychological distress.
Mr Irvine is alleging negligence in the camp organisers’ failure to read Jack’s form, their failure to keep an Epi Pen at the camp, and their failure to have regard for Jack’s safety.
He has claimed that Subway failed to ask the camp organisers whether any of the camp participants had food allergies of any kind, or that it failed to have any regard as to “whether it was appropriate to supply foodstuffs containing nuts to a children’s event.”
Jack’s mother, Julie, and sisters Sally Ann and Louise have each filed similar writs.
A 2014 inquest on Jack heard that camp organisers had had no processes in place for handling allergic reactions and no adequate first aid plan.
A lawyer for the VKA told the inquest that staff were being retrained to better prevent such incidents.
The president of the VKA, Russell White, declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying that the matter was in the hands of its lawyers.
Subway did not reply to a request for comment.
Lawyers for the Irvines declined to comment.
Source : Herald Sun 11th September 2015
