Nov 30 (Reuters) – A New York federal judge found that an attorney who has filed hundreds of class actions accusing companies of misleading labeling on foods and other products in civil contempt of court on Thursday, saying he filed a lawsuit against Starbucks in bad faith.
Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick Scullin Jr issued the order against attorney Spencer Sheehan after dismissing a proposed class action Sheehan filed against Starbucks over the labeling on its French Roast Ground 100% Arabica coffee, saying the lawsuit was unsupported by studies, case law or “reasonable interpretations” of the labeling.
Sheehan, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of plaintiff Kristie Brownell in November 2022, alleged that Starbucks was misrepresenting that the coffee contains no additives.
Scullin noted that Sheehan had filed 18 lawsuits in his district since 2021 – with none making it past the motion to dismiss stage. Scullin said he would decide on Sheehan’s specific sanctions later.
Neither Sheehan, who is based in Great Neck, New York, nor his attorneys immediately responded to requests for comment. Attorneys for Starbucks, which was not involved in the sanctions efforts, did not respond to a request for comment.
Sheehan, who has garnered headlines for his lawsuits over product labeling, has said that he filed more than 500 lawsuits between January 2020 and April 2023. He has filed lawsuits claiming Kellogg’s Strawberry Pop Tarts don’t contain enough strawberries and Walmart’s fudge mint cookies don’t contain any actual fudge or mint. Kellogg and Walmart beat the claims, court records show.
In a May court filing in another case where a judge said he was considering sanctions, Sheehan said that he had never been sanctioned in the hundreds of cases he had filed against the biggest food companies.
Scullin granted Starbucks’ motion to dismiss in July, finding that the plaintiff hadn’t shown there was added potassium in the coffee or that a reasonable consumer would have expected “100% Arabica coffee” to mean no additives.
The case is Kristie Brownell et al v. Starbucks Coffee Corp, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, 5:22-cv-01199.
For Spencer Sheehan: Paul Ferrara and Daniel Rose of Costello Cooney & Fearon
For Starbucks: Paul Garrity, Robert Guite and Sascha Henry of Sheppard Mullin
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Reporting by Diana Jones
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