Panera settles with first plaintiff in Charged Lemonade wrongful death suits

Panera Bread has settled with the family of an Ivy League student with a heart condition who died after drinking the chain’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade drink.

Sarah Katz, 21, was a University of Pennsylvania student with a heart condition called long QT syndrome type 1 who avoided energy drinks per her doctors’ recommendations, according to a lawsuit filed last year in Philadelphia.

The suit said that Katz bought a Charged Lemonade from a Panera restaurant in September 2022. Her roommate and close friend told NBC News that she went into cardiac arrest hours later. 

The complaint, filed on behalf of Katz’s parents, was the first of four lawsuits that Panera faced over the beverage. A second lawsuit blamed it for a Florida man’s death while the other two alleged that the Charged Lemonade caused permanent heart injuries in previously healthy people.

Panera announced in May that it was discontinuing the beverage nationwide.

Elizabeth Crawford, a partner at the Philadelphia-based law firm Kline & Specter, PC, who represents the plaintiffs in all four lawsuits, told NBC News on Monday morning in her first interview since the settlement that “the matter has resolved” but said she was not permitted to share any other details.

Panera did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the development. After learning of Katz’s death, the company said it was “very saddened to learn about the tragic passing of Sarah Katz” and it vowed to “thoroughly investigate this matter.”

Despite the lawsuits, which referred to the Charged Lemonade as a “dangerous energy drink,” Panera said the decision to discontinue the beverage was part of a “recent menu transformation.” 

The wrongful death lawsuit filed after Katz’s death alleged that the Charged Lemonade had been “offered side-by-side with all of Panera’s non-caffeinated and/or less caffeinated drinks” and was advertised as a “plant-based and clean” beverage that contained as much caffeine as the restaurant’s dark roast coffee. The complaint said the Charged Lemonade also had guarana extract, another stimulant, as well as the equivalent of nearly 30 teaspoons of sugar in the large size.

Following the lawsuit over Katz’s death, Panera made a number of changes, including moving the Charged Lemonade behind the counter so it was no longer self-serve and updating its nutrition information to reflect how much caffeine was in the drink when it was served with ice. It also added prominent signs cautioning that Charged Lemonade contained caffeine, should be consumed in moderation and was not recommended for children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant or nursing women.

The Katz case was supposed to go to trial this month, with jury selection slated for later this week.