LivWell, a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary targeted in a class-action lawsuit by people who claim they ate marijuana-infused chocolate bars without their knowledge, has filed a motion claiming someone else is responsible for the poisoning.
One of the featured attractions at the inaugural Denver County Fair in August was a Pot Pavilion, but the pre-event publicity stressed the pavilion’s offerings would be marijuana-free because the event was for families of all ages. The Pot Pavilion was separate from the rest of the fair and required people to show identification to prove they were over 21.
Plaintiffs have cited medical bills, a vomit-damaged car and lost work as causes for their class-action lawsuit against LivWell. The damages stem from an August incident when fair-goers ate marijuana-infused chocolate bars that LivWell’s booth workers told them were marijuana-free.
Now LivWell is pointing the finger at another marijuana entrepreneur as a possible saboteur.
Beyond Broadway LLC, the company doing business as both LivWell and Full Melt Chocolate, filed a Designation of Nonparties at Fault on Wednesday. The filing says that LivWell denies responsibility for giving the tainted chocolate to fair-goers and alleges possible sabotage by a former employee and two John Does.
Daniel de Sailles, owner of Top Shelf Extracts, is the former employee named. Top Shelf had a nearby booth in the Pot Pavilion. De Sailles made a name for himself in the Colorado marijuana industry as an extract artist (extracts are smokeable). He is the founder of a hash making competition known as The Secret Cup.
LivWell’s complaint alleges that de Sailles or associates “may be responsible for providing chocolate containing THC to the Plaintiffs.” They did not offer any evidence for the assertion, but noted that de Sailles didn’t leave Beyond Broadway under good circumstances.
“Defendant is not aware of specific evidence directly linking Mr. de Sailles to suspected sabotage; however, Mr. de Sailles did not leave Beyond Broadway under positive circumstances and would have had both the motivation and the opportunity to sabotage the products handed out by LivWell at the Denver County Fair.”
The filing points to two other suspicious characters, but only named de Sailles.
For his part, de Sailles denies any wrong-doing and says that two workers at his booth may have cause to join the lawsuit.
“Two of my booth workers went home sick,” de Sailles told Marijuana.com on Thursday. He says it did not occur to him until after the incident made the news, but he now thinks his workers became ill because they ate at the neighboring candy booth.
Marijuana.com spoke with Corey Zurbuch, the lawyer representing the class, by phone on Friday.
“It’s a common pleading,” Zurbuch said of the filing.
The Boulder lawyer explained that defendants are allowed to point the finger at anyone they might think is responsible. His seven named clients will represent a class of over 100 people possibly affected. The process of discovery and depositions will begin soon. Zurbuch says he expects to get a trial date within the next couple of weeks and estimates it will be about a year before that trial begins.
P. Aiden Hunt 