$4M Settlement Reached In Big Olaf Creamery Wrongful Death Lawsuit

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — A settlement has been reached in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Big Olaf Creamery following a national listeria outbreak connected to the brand’s ice cream, according to multiple reports.

A judge ordered the company to pay $4 million to the estate of Mary Billman, a 79-year-old Illinois woman who died after eating ice cream affected by the outbreak, according to the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Her estate’s lawsuit, filed in July, said that she died Jan. 29, 11 days after eating Big Olaf ice cream in Sarasota while visiting her daughter, who lives in Hollywood, according to court records. She died at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood after her organs shut down from a septic illness.

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"I can't even believe it happened," Billman's daughter Richelle Brown told WTSP. "It was fast. It was sudden — going from completely normal and being my mom to nothing."

Last year, the attorney for a Massachusetts woman also told the Bradenton Herald that she was suing Big Olaf after she became ill from eating the ice cream while visiting Florida and lost her pregnancy.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first linked the listeria outbreak, which left Billman dead and at least 28 people ill across 10 states, to the Sarasota County-based ice cream brand in June.

During an investigation, 16 of the company’s 17 ice cream flavors that were tested had traces of the bacteria, according to the Food & Drug Administration.

The CDC issued a safety alert for Big Olaf products in July. The company voluntarily recalled its products from stores and shops.

The agency declared the outbreak over in November.