Restaurant is sued over man's death

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- An amended lawsuit has been filed against a Knoxville O'Charley's restaurant and its parent company, which is blamed by the family of a Roane County businessman for his death in October.
Michael L. Smith, 55, president and CEO of the Roane Alliance, an economic and social development partnership, became sick Sept. 6 after eating at O'Charley's and was later diagnosed with hepatitis A. He suffered liver failure and was in a coma for four days.
He was eventually released from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in early October, but the lawsuit contends his health was damaged to the point where he could not survive.
An autopsy has been performed but the results are not yet available, plaintiff's attorney James K. Scott told The Knoxville News Sentinel.
Smith's family sued O'Charley's in Knox County Circuit Court on Oct. 1, alleging Smith regularly ate at the restaurant and contracted hepatitis A while eating there. The outbreak of the virus was attributed to the eatery at the time by the Knox County Health Department.
Since then, the health department said a batch of green onions was likely the source. More than 70 cases of hepatitis A were reported in the Knoxville area during August and September. Other outbreaks of the virus have since been reported in Georgia, North Carolina and, most recently, Pennsylvania.
In the amended lawsuit, Smith's family contends O'Charley's failed in its promise that the restaurant serves "quality food" that is safe, and says the eatery failed to take "reasonable precautions" against contamination.
The suit also contends O'Charley's attempted to deceive the public about the exposure of the virus. The restaurant "intentionally misrepresented or caused the dates of exposure to hepatitis A at its restaurant to be misrepresented or concealed from the public," the lawsuit states.