Two months after a wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of a 21-year-old student who died after drinking Charged Lemonade from Panera Bread, another lawsuit has been filed.
The second wrongful death lawsuit involves a man who also went into cardiac arrest after drinking highly-caffeinated Charged Lemonade.
The lawsuit claims that Charged Lemonade is advertised as a safe beverage like regular lemonade or iced tea, when in fact it is essentially an energy drink with more caffeine than Red Bull.
The regular 20-ounce size of Charged Lemonade contains 260 milligrams of caffeine, while the 30-ounce cup has 390 milligrams.
The FDA recommends a daily limit of 400 milligrams of caffeine due to the cardiovascular risks, but some adults are more sensitive.
The lawsuit was filed by the family of Dennis Brown, a 46-year-old man from Florida who was a member of Panera Bread’s “Unlimited Sip Club,” which allows customers to order unlimited drinks.
The lawsuit claims that Brown normally ordered three drinks in a row — usually iced tea, root beer, or water — but on September 28, October 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and the day he died, October 9th, he drank three Charged Lemonades in a row.
His family claims that he normally avoided energy drinks due to high blood pressure, but may not have known that Charged Lemonade contained caffeine because it was not advertised as an energy drink.
Charged Lemonade was also offered side-by-side with sodas and non-caffeinated drinks.
On the night he died, Brown allegedly drank three Panera Charged Lemonade beverages and started walking home. Tragically, he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest and was found dead on the sidewalk.
The lawsuit claims that Charged Lemonade is “unreasonably dangerous” due to the high levels of caffeine.
The lawsuit also warns that Charged Lemonade is mixed in-house by Panera employees, which is “inherently dangerous” because a mistake in the caffeine concentration could lead to “permanent and catastrophic injuries.”
His family filed a lawsuit against Panera Bread in the Superior Court for the State of Delaware — Case Number N23C-12-001
Source: Panera Bread faces second wrongful death suit from caffeinated ‘charged lemonade’