Toss $5 Million Frozen Pizza Lawsuit by Local Mom, Judge Is Asked

Katie Simpson’s class action lawsuit over frozen pizzas is half-baked, according to defendants California Pizza Kitchen and Nestlé USA Inc.

Last week, lawyers from Los Angeles and Washington filed a motion to dismiss the $5 million suit by Simpson, a San Diego mom who bought pizzas mainly at the Target store near Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego.

Her suit targets partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, or PHVO, which it says is the main source of trans fat in the American diet and “used in dangerous quantities in the Nestle Trans Fat Pizzas.”

But L.A. attorneys Dale Giali and Andrew Edelstein and Washington’s Carmine Zarlenga, representing the pizza-makers, on April 12 filed a request for a hearing on June 6 in San Diego federal court.

The lawyers want Judge Janis Sammartino to toss out the pizza suit.

Among their arguments to dismiss the case:

• All of Simpson’s claims—attempting to ban artificial trans fatty acids in 25 frozen pizza products made under CPK and Nestlé marks—are pre-empted by the FDA and federal meat and poultry inspection rules.
• Simpson’s case is a matter that the FDA and USDA should decide, and not a federal court, and the use of trans fats in food products is lawful.
• Her “public nuisance claim” doesn’t allege any special injury to herself and she can’t properly sue over “products she never purchased.” 

The motion to dismiss and some supporting documents are attached as PDFs.