One more dead in London, Ont., legionnaires' outbreak as $86M class action proposed

Another person has died as a result of a London, Ont., outbreak of legionnaires' disease, bringing the death toll from the city's second outbreak in as many years to five.

The news comes as a London-based law firm announced a proposed class-action lawsuit that seeks to draw more than $86 million in damages from the company whose meat processing facility is the likely origin of the outbreak.

The suit, filed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by Siskinds LLP on Tuesday, claims Sofina Foods was negligent in the cleaning of the cooling tower at their east London processing facility, leading to an outbreak of legionnaires' disease that killed five people and sickened more than 100 others.

"The people that we've spoken to so far have dealt with pretty severe injuries. They've been hospitalized. One person was in a medically-induced coma for several weeks," said Linda Visser, a partner at Siskinds.

The latest outbreak was declared in early July, and is still ongoing despite Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) officials having identified the likely source of the outbreak at Sofina Foods. The health unit's last count puts the total number of hospitalizations from the outbreak at 96, with four people currently in hospital.

Public health officials have also linked last year's outbreak, which killed two people, to the same location.

Legionella bacteria cause the disease. They are waterborne and thrive in warm, moist and stagnant conditions like cooling towers. They can be inhaled when aerosolized, which sometimes causes legionellosis, which ranges from a mild illness commonly called Pontiac fever to legionnaires' disease.

A statement of claim filed by Siskinds is seeking more than $86 million in damages from Sofina Foods. $75 million of that sum is for both quantifiable and non-quantifiable losses suffered by injured class-action members, while $11 million is requested in punitive damages.

On top of that, the statement of claim lists other potential compensation in the form of damages for nuisance, negligence, battery, environmental damages, healthcare costs, legal costs, and more. It also seeks a declaration that Sofina is liable for the outbreak and the damage it inflicted.

It claims the primary plaintiffs, Justin-Eric Frank Serratore-Pimental, and his mother live together with his two sons in a home three kilometres away from the Sofina Foods facility at 1226 Trafalgar St.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that Serratore-Pimental was rushed to hospital with a dangerously high fever, delirium, pain, and trouble breathing, before being diagnosed with legionnaires' disease, double pneumonia and sepsis.

"[He] was told that it's good that they came in [to the hospital] when they did," said Visser.

The legionnaires' disease strain found in Sofina's cooling tower matched the strain that made Serratore-Pimental ill, the suit alleges.

While a statement of claim has been filed on behalf of the two primary plaintiffs, it remains to be seen whether the court will accept the suit as a class action.

Siskinds is seeking people affected by the outbreak to contact them, classifying them in two groups.

The injury class includes people who were exposed to legionella bacteria at or near the facility between May 1, 2024 and Sept. 26, 2024, and between May 1, 2025 and September 30, 2025. People in the injury class

The family class includes family of people that fit into the injury class.

While there are no Ontario-wide or municipal regulations in place that call for cooling towers to be registered and monitored closely, Siskinds claims that Sofina had a duty to ensure the cooling tower was clean and closely monitored.

It also claims Sofina failed to "implement and continually review a water safety protocol," and failed to adequately respond to health unit directions to determine whether its cooling tower was the outbreak's source.

Sofina told CBC in late August that it has continually followed guidance from the health unit throughout the outbreak, and has worked with outside specialists to clean and maintain its cooling tower.

The tower was brought back online as of Sept. 2, following cleaning, testing and approval from the health unit, Sofina said last week.

CBC has reached out to Sofina Foods for a comment on the suit, and this story will be updated with their response.

Health officials on London, Ont., expect more cases of legionnaires disease to emerge over the next two weeks following a deadly outbreak this summer linked to a meat-processing plant cooling unit.