Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been sued by a Colorado man who says he got sick of salmonellosis after eating salmonella-tainted peppers purchased at one of its stores.

The lawsuit was filed August 1 in the District Court of Montezuma County, Colorado by Seattle-based Marler Clark on behalf of Brian Grubbs against Wal-Mart and an unknown supplier.

Mr. Grubbs became sick after eating jalapenos purchased at a Cortez Wal-Mart on June 26, says Marler. He became suspicious on the jalapeno because “it was the only thing he ate different from his wife” who did not show any symptoms of the infection. Consequently, he insisted on health authorities on getting the peppers tested. Those tests are now “a crucial piece of evidence.”

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said on July 28 that a jalapeno pepper provided by an ill consumer from Montezuma County tested positive for Salmonella Saintpaul. Mary Siceloff, representative for Marler Clark, identified the consumer as being Mr. Grubbs. She further added that about 50 victims of the outbreak have contacted Marler Clark to represent them in court.

Marler Clark has settled 83 cases related to the 2006 E. coli outbreak linked to spinach and has 10 others cases still pending from that incident.

On July 3, Grubbs became nauseous and suffered chills and diarrhea. As his condition worsened over the next few days, his wife took him to Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, N.M., where he was treated before he went into kidney failure due to severe dehydration.

“A stool sample was taken that proved a genetic match to Salmonella Saintpaul and the pepper – it is airtight evidence,” Marler said.

On the other hand, Wal-Mart officials said they cannot comment on the suit because they haven’t seen it. However, they added that they quickly removed products from shelves as soon as the FDA warned about the possibility that they might be tainted with salmonella.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from Wal-Mart and an unknown company that supplied the jalapenos to Wal-Mart.

Salmonella outbreak is still under investigation. The US health officials belonging to both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they identified the source of the contamination in Serrano peppers grown on a farm in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state that borders South Texas. They also found traces of the elusive bacteria in irrigation water collected from the same farm.

However, investigators still suspect that tainted tomatoes were involved at first, although they say fresh tomatoes now on the market are safe.

Since April, when the first case of salmonella infection was spotted, the disease has sickened about 1320 people and is still making victims. At least 252 people were hospitalized and two people have died.

Also, many industry representatives complained their loss had reached no less than $300 million and, more than that, they had to dump tons of healthy tomatoes just because of the government warnings.