A Bay Area woman who filed a lawsuit against Subway for allegedly selling tuna made with chicken, pork and beef seeks to drop the case that caught national attention in 2021.
Nilima Amin, who filed the lawsuit in January 2021 alongside Bay Area resident Karen Dhanowa, is now looking to drop the case against the giant sandwich chain due to morning sickness brought on by pregnancy, according to Reuters. But it may not be the end of the ongoing saga.
“Amin wants to dismiss the case in San Francisco federal court without prejudice, which would let her sue again when she feels better,” Reuters reports.
Subway is countersuing Amin and “her seven lawyers to pay at least $618,000 of its legal bills,” the outlet added.
The legal dispute began in 2021 when Amin and Dhanowa sued the fast food chain, alleging intentional misrepresentation, violation of the false advertisement law and fraud, among other claims based on Subway’s assertion that it sold 100% tuna.
In a November 2021 legal filing, the plaintiffs cited that a marine biologist at Integrative Biology tested 20 samples of tuna products at 20 Subway stores around Southern California. The results purportedly concluded that 19 of the 20 stores tested had “no detectable tuna DNA sequences.”
“Additionally, the test results indicate that all twenty of the samples contained detectable sequences of chicken DNA; a majority of the samples (eleven out of twenty) contained detectable sequences of pork DNA; and some of the samples (seven out of twenty) contained detectable sequences of cattle DNA,” the suit claimed.
Subway denied the allegations in January 2021. A spokesperson for the chain called the suit a “baseless” effort to tarnish the high-quality products made at Subway, according to Today. They added that all stores carried 100% tuna mixed with mayonnaise.
SFGATE reached out to Subway for comment but did not hear back by publication.