Boar’s Head is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit by a Smithfield man who was hospitalized with a listeria infection he blames on last year’s multistate outbreak tied to one of the company’s Virginia meatpacking plants.

Robert Reposa filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in federal court last September against Boar’s Head Provisions Co. Inc. The suit states he purchased boar’s Head brand deli meats from the Kroger grocery store in Smithfield in late July, days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service were investigating a listeria outbreak the CDC would later trace to a meatpacking plant in Jarratt.

Attorneys for Boar’s Head filed to dismiss the case on Dec. 18, writing in a same-day memorandum that “the only Boar’s Head product the CDC has reported as being linked to the outbreak is Boar’s Head branded liverwurst” while the lawsuit hadn’t specified which type of Boar’s Head brand meat Reposa consumed.

The USDA, however, announced on July 30 that Boar’s Head had expanded its voluntary recall to include 71 products produced between May 10 and July 29, 2024, under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names.

Listeria, according to the CDC, is a typically rare but serious form of bacterial infection that can result from eating contaminated food. Outside of outbreaks, the CDC estimates 1,600 people are infected with listeria each year, and of those, 260 die from the infection.

The CDC had identified 61 people across 19 states as of Nov. 19 as being infected with the outbreak listeria strain, 60 of whom were hospitalized and 10 of whom died.

Reposa’s lawsuit states he went to an urgent care facility on Aug. 8 with severe stomach pain, vomiting, fever, chills and diarrhea and was admitted to a hospital on Aug. 13 when his symptoms persisted. There, he tested positive for a listeria infection and, due to previous heart issues, remained hospitalized for 14 days.

The complaint alleges that Reposa “likely suffered permanent damage as a result of this exposure.” The lawsuit seeks $4.6 million in compensatory damages and $43.5 million more in punitive damages.

The lawsuit alleges Boar’s Head “knew of the unsanitary practices that were present at its facilities” but “continued to put food products into the chain of commerce to be purchased by consumers.”

Boar’s Head announced in September it would indefinitely close the Jarratt plant, which the Sarasota, Florida-based company says has not operated since late July. It had not reopened as of Jan. 14, according to Associated Press reporting.

USDA records list 69 separate incidents of noncompliance at the Jarratt plant with federal food safety regulations spanning Aug. 1, 2023, through Aug. 2, 2024, including findings of mold, a leaky ceiling, meat residue on the floor and walls, insect infestations and at least one instance of dried meat residue on a knife used to slice products.

“Our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility and was used only for liverwurst,” the company said in a Sept. 13 press release. “With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst.”

Reposa is represented by Robert Haddad of Virginia Beach-based Ruloff, Swain, Haddad, Morecock, Talbert & Woodward P.C.

Boar’s Head is represented by the Norfolk-based firm Wilcox & Savage P.C.

A judge has not ruled on Boar’s Head’s dismissal motion. The last filing is dated Jan. 6.