Bob Evans Meatloaf Couple - The children of a couple who ate a Bob Evans meal shortly before they fell ill and subsequently died have initiated legal action against the food service company.

Reports indicate that Harold and Virginia Starcher, who resided in Ripley, West Virginia, shared a Bob Evans take-out meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli and a roll in Oct. 2012. Some hours after the meal, they both fell ill and had to be admitted to the Jackson General Hospital with food poisoning.

According to The West Virginia Record, Mrs. Starcher, who was the first to fall ill, had nausea, was vomiting and she also had diarrhea. CNN reports that the next day Mr. Starcher had a stroke. The couple had to be moved to an eldercare facility after being released from the hospital.

Reports indicate that Mrs. Starcher died in Dec 2012. - only three months after eating the allegedly contaminated Bob Evans meal. Meanwhile, Mr. Starcher, who had an open heart surgery in the same month that his wife died, passed away in May 2013.

The plaintiffs in the Bob Evans meatloaf case, Mark and Ann Starcher, claim their parents' consumption of the apparently tainted Bob Evans take-out is directly linked to the sudden deterioration of their health and their deaths. Their case, which has attracted nation-wide attention, will be heard in a federal court next year.

Mark and Ann Starcher are reportedly seeking damages of up to $250,000 to cover the medical cost of caring for their parents as well as an unspecified sum as compensation for their death.

But Bob Evan Restaurants, who have pushed for the case to be moved from a Circuit to a Federal Court, deny complicity in the case. A spokesman for the company Scott Taggart is quoted by CNN saying that after analysis the case, the company has concluded that the litigation against it has no grounds.