CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - Walmart is pointing at the impact a prolific class action lawyer has made on the federal court system, figuring he's filed hundreds of dubious cases around the country.
Spencer Sheehan has received media attention for his consumer causes. Usually he alleges the ingredients in foods don't live up to what consumers would expect, given the products' marketing.
For example, he sued the maker of Pop-Tarts because the strawberry-flavored version is made from pears and apples and dyed red. Recent cases say Trident gum shouldn't have a peppermint leaf on its package and that Herr's brand Jalapeno Poppers cheese curls don't contain real jalapeno peppers.
Walmart is facing a class action from Sheehan in Illinois federal court over its non-dairy coffee creamer that says consumers expect "creamer" to include dairy ingredients. In a recent motion to dismiss, the company's lawyers submitted a list of Sheehan cases filed since November 2017.
A search of the federal court database shows nearly 600 Sheehan cases, and Walmart's motion summarizes 337.
"His most prolific venture, filing over 120 lawsuits claiming that the defendant sells a product labeled as 'vanilla' flavored but containing limited 'real' vanilla or 'artificial' flavoring, ha been overwhelmingly rejected, with dozens of federal courts dismissing the lawsuits at the pleading stage," Walmart's motion says.
"Mr. Sheehan has now shifted his sights in this another lawsuits to another baseless theory: alleging that consumers are somehow misled as to the absence of certain dairy ingredients in products labeled 'coffee creamer,' despite 'coffee creamers' being defined by every leading dictionary - including every dictionary cited by Plaintiff herself - as a non-dairy product, and despite coffee creamers having been made for decades without such dairy ingredients."
Consumers who prefer actual cream are duped into buying the whitener, the suit says. It targets Great Value-brand chocolate caramel coffee creamer called "ultra pasteurized" by Walmart.
"In place of cream, the product substitutes water and sunflower oil, the second and third ingredients, to reduce costs," the suit says.
"Cream is known for its 'creamy' taste because milkfat contains hundreds of lactones, aroma compounds which contribute to its taste."
Walmart says its label complies with federal regulations and that pasteurization is not limited to milk-based beverages.
"(Plaintiff) alleges that the name 'coffee creamer' is almost identical to 'coffee cream,' defined by the FDA as a dairy product," the motion says.. "But calling 'coffee cream' and 'coffee creamer' identical does not make them so - particularly given their indisputably different definitions."
Walmart is represented by Tabet Divito & Rothstein in Chicago and Covington & Burling of Washington, D.C.