FLEMING ISLAND, Fla. — The household of a 46-year-old Florida man has filed a wrongful demise and negligence lawsuit towards one of many largest fast-casual restaurant chains within the U.S., claiming Panera Bread Firm‘s caffeine-filled lemonade drink led to his demise.

David Brown had hypertension and didn’t drink power drinks, however the lawsuit mentioned he believed the Panera Charged Lemonade was secure because it was not marketed as an power drink. It was supplied in the identical place because the restaurant chain’s non-caffeinated or less-caffeinated drinks, in response to the lawsuit filed Monday in Superior Court docket in Delaware, the place Panera Bread Firm is registered.

The lawsuit states that on Oct. 9, Brown had the drink 3 times throughout a go to to the Panera Bread Firm location in Fleming Island, Florida. On his stroll dwelling, he suffered cardiac arrest and died a short while later. He had ordered a Panera Charged Lemonade at the very least seven instances over the course of two weeks in September and October, in response to the lawsuit.

“Defendants knew or ought to have recognized that the Panera Charged Lemonade, as designed and formulated, as soon as consumed, may injure youngsters, pregnant and breastfeeding girls, and other people delicate to caffeine by inflicting catastrophic accidents and/or demise,” the lawsuit mentioned.

Nobody from Panera’s company places of work responded to an inquiry in search of remark Tuesday afternoon.

Brown had a chromosomal deficiency dysfunction, developmental delays, some blurred imaginative and prescient and gentle mental incapacity, the lawsuit mentioned. He had labored for 17 years at Publix Tremendous Markets and would repeatedly go to the Panera restaurant after work for meals, as many as 3 times every week, as a result of the lawsuit mentioned he felt the chain marketed as being a wholesome different to different eating places.

One other wrongful demise lawsuit was filed in October by the household of 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a College of Pennsylvania pupil with a coronary heart situation who died in September 2022 after consuming the drink, in response to media reviews.

The privately-held Panera Bread Firm, which is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, operates in 48 U.S. states and Canada.