Dennis Brown, 46, drank three of the highly caffeinated beverages before suffering a cardiac arrest in October, according to the suit.

Panera Bread’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade is now blamed for a second death, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades from a local Panera on Oct. 9 and then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home, the suit says.

Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability. He lived independently, frequently stopping at Panera after his shifts at a supermarket, the legal complaint says. Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.

  • Clasm@lemmy.world
    10·
    7 months ago

    If it is an industry problem, then this sort of event is usually what snowballs into actual change.

    The tip of this case, I believe, isn’t just the caffeine content, but the fact that it:

    • Wasn’t exactly labeled as a high-caf drink.
    • Was often next to, or in place of, non-caf drinks.
    • Was marketed as part of an unlimited drinks program.

    While the company isn’t required to cater to individuals with very specific tolerances of the simulant, they likely had data available to them that suggests that this outcome was always a possibility, yet they supposedly ran the product until people died.