Why a judge dismissed the Jamestown harbormaster's $5 million lawsuit against Starbucks

A class-action lawsuit against Starbucks, filed by the Jamestown harbormaster, that sought $5 million for “misleading actions” has been dismissed.

Attorneys for Glenn Skalubinski, a former Rhode Island State Police trooper who was named harbormaster in Jamestown in November 2020, filed the complaint against the coffee giant in Massachusetts federal court in February 2021. The suit claims deceptive labeling, marketing and sale of a Frappuccino beverage.

In a decision by Judge Indira Talwani on July 20, the case was dismissed because Skalubinski did not provide the court with “proof of execution” of the summons within 90 days of its issue. From that point, Skalubinski had 14 days to set “forth good cause as to why the court should not dismiss the case.”

“The court received no response,” the ruling reads. “Accordingly, the action is hereby DISMISSED without prejudice. This case is now CLOSED.”

The beverage that came under fire in the complaint is the “Vanilla With Other Natural Flavors Starbucks Frappuccino Chilled Coffee Drink.”

According to the complaint, Skalubinski purchased the product from a Hannaford supermarket in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, “on occasions based on the representation and reasonable belief that the Product contained vanilla as an ingredient.”

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Starbucks misled Skalubinski and other “reasonable consumers” to believe the drink “contains vanilla as the ingredient that provides for the Product’s characterizing vanilla flavor. In reality, the Product contains ‘natural flavor,’ not vanilla, as the ingredient that provides for the Product’s characterizing vanilla flavor,” the complaint says.

“The goal of these food labeling lawsuits is to protect the consumers,” Providence-based attorney Peter N. Wasylyck, who represented Skalubinski, said in a phone call with The Daily News in February 2021.

“The Product sold by Defendant is characterized as vanilla coffee drink. It does not contain vanilla as an ingredient but rather is flavored with ‘natural flavors,’” the complaint says. "Therefore, by law, Defendant must disclose that the Product is flavored on the Product's front label. Defendant has failed to make such a disclosure and therefore is not in compliance with the law.” 

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According to the complaint, upon information and belief, there are “thousands” of class members “geographically dispersed throughout Massachusetts.”

“The amount in controversy exceeds $5,000,000 for Plaintiff and the Class,” the complaint says. “[E]xclusive of interest and costs, reaped by Defendant from their transactions with Plaintiff and the Class, as a direct and proximate result of the wrongful conduct alleged herein.”

Skalubinski sought damages, injunctive relief and a jury trial “for Defendant’s deceptive and misleading actions that have unjustly enriched the Defendant.”