Products Liability Law Reporter

Krystal Talavera, 39, regularly purchased Kratom online from Grow, LLC, and Sean Michael Harder. One morning, Talavera’s partner found her face down and unconscious on the living room floor. Next to her was the couple’s child and an open bag of Kratom “Space Dust” purchased from Grow, LLC, and Harder. Talavera was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She had been a registered nurse earning approximately $89,000 annually and is survived by her four children, one of whom is an adult. An autopsy revealed that the cause of Talavera’s death was acute mitragynine intoxication.

Talavera’s son, on behalf of her estate and her survivors, sued Grow, LLC, and Harder, alleging strict liability failure to warn, design defect, and manufacturing defect; breach of warranty; fraudulent misrepresentation; negligence; and negligence per se. The plaintiffs asserted, among other things, that the defendants had failed to notify the FDA of Kratom’s ingredients before marketing and placing Kratom products into interstate commerce, failed to undergo premarket substantiation to establish that Kratom is reasonably expected to be safe, and mislabeled and misbranded their Kratom products.

The court awarded a default judgment in the amount of $11.6 million.

Citation: Filippelli v. Grow, LLC, No. 22-81731-CV-MIDDLEBROOKS (S.D. Fla. July 27, 2023).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members Michael J. Cowgill and Tamara J. Williams, both of Sarasota, Fla.