Mealey's Toxic Torts : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Toxic Torts

January 14, 2025
Judge Dismisses Chloroprene Counterclaim, Says D.C. Circuit Has Jurisdiction

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana has granted the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss an amended counterclaim filed by a defendant chemical company in an injury lawsuit involving carcinogenic chloroprene emissions from neoprene manufacturing operations, ruling that the chemical company’s argument that the district court has jurisdiction to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s action would “nullify Congress’ choice” to assign the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review Clean Air Act (CAA) actions, whether the EPA acted lawfully or not.
January 14, 2025
Mother Seeks $1.5M For Daughter’s Legionella Death Tied To Flint Water Crisis

DETROIT — The mother of a deceased woman has moved for approval of a $1.5 million settlement for the daughter’s wrongful death from Legionella exposure at a Flint, Mich., hospital that occurred in the wake of the lead-contaminated water crisis in that city.
January 14, 2025
Michigan Attorney General Says Civil Rights Case Over Flint Water Indictment Fails

DETROIT — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has moved to dismiss a lawsuit against her filed by a former state official related to his criminal prosecution in connection with the Flint water crisis on grounds that she was not personally involved in the criminal cases that stemmed from the lead contamination that ensued after the city of Flint switched its water supply in 2014.
January 13, 2025
U.S. High Court Refuses To Hear Cancer Cluster Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 refused to hear a petition brought by residents whose children were victims of a cancer cluster, which the plaintiffs claimed was caused by soil and groundwater that was contaminated with radiation from a facility owned and operated United Technologies Corp. and Pratt & Whitney Group.
January 10, 2025
Equity Firms Say Jurisdiction Lacking In California Ethylene Oxide Injury Case

LOS ANGELES — Two private equity firm defendants in an ethylene oxide (EtO) injury case related to a commercial sterilization facility have filed a reply brief in California state court arguing that the court should grant their motion to quash service of the summons in the case because they are investment advisory firms lacking the “minimum contacts” with the state required for the court to exercise personal jurisdiction over them.
January 09, 2025
Judge: Landlords Were Not Given Time To Remedy Lead Hazard After Receiving Notice

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A state court judge in New York denied plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on their negligence claim against their landlords for the alleged lead poisoning of their child, ruling that the evidence did not show that the landlords were provided sufficient time to remedy the hazardous lead paint condition after receiving notice.
January 07, 2025
Suit Seeking Coverage For AFFF Claims Dismissed In Favor Of First-Filed Suit

CHARLESTON, S.C. — An insured’s suit seeking coverage from three of its insurers for underlying lawsuits related to the insured’s manufacture, sale and distribution of aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) must be dismissed in favor of a similar suit filed by the insured in California because the California suit was filed prior to the insured’s South Carolina federal court suit, a South Carolina federal judge said in granting a motion to dismiss by the insurers.
January 06, 2025
Special Counsel In New Jersey PFAS Settlement Seek More Than $36.7M In Fees

WOODBURY, N.J. — The special counsel to the New Jersey attorney general and the plaintiffs filed a motion in New Jersey state court seeking $36,705,834.80 in attorney fees for their work in reaching a $392,781,963.69 settlement to resolve the state’s lawsuit for cleanup and removal costs from contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
January 03, 2025
Georgia County Sues Makers Of PFAS For Polluting Local Groundwater

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A municipality in Georgia has sued E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., the 3M Co. and others in state court, contending that they are liable for polluting its groundwater because carpet-treatment products that contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been disposed of in the county’s landfill, and PFAS “migrate daily into the waters of the State of Georgia in stormwater runoff, landfill ‘juice’ called leachate.”
January 03, 2025
Man Sues Samsung For Selling Smartwatch Bands He Says Contain PFAS

LOS ANGELES — A man has filed a putative class action against Samsung Electronics America Inc. in California federal court contending that it is liable for fraud and the violation of various consumer laws because the bands for several of its smartwatches “contain excessive levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS),” which the man says misleads consumers and causes them to “overpay for Products that do not deliver advertised benefits and to forego safe alternatives available on the market.”
January 02, 2025
DuPont Affiliates Object To Group’s Bid To Add Them To PFAS Drinking Water Case

BOSTON — E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and its affiliates, which are nonparties in a lawsuit over drinking water contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have filed a brief in Massachusetts federal court arguing that the Newark Group, one of the defendants in the case, should not be allowed to add the DuPont entities as additional defendants because they never sent any PFAS-tainted waste to the Massachusetts town where the plaintiffs live.
January 02, 2025
After More Than 4 Years, Judge Lifts Stay In Perchlorate Drinking Water Case

NEW YORK — More than four years after staying a case brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s lack of regulation for perchlorate in drinking water, a federal judge in New York has issued an order stating that the parties have consented to the district court’s lifting of the stay.
January 02, 2025
Evidence Is ‘Insufficient’ To Link Paraquat To Parkinson’s Disease, Report Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) released a preliminary report on Dec. 30 about potential human health outcomes related to exposure to the pesticide paraquat, determining that overall there are “data gaps relative to impacts to the thyroid and birth defects that may be linked to adverse impacts from the use of paraquat,” and, with respect to an alleged link between paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease, “there is currently insufficient evidence to demonstrate a direct causal association with paraquat exposure and the increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.”
January 02, 2025
Multiple Glyphosate Injury Cases Sent To Roundup MDL

SAN FRANCISCO — Multiple cases brought against Monsanto Co. alleging injuries from exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, were transferred to California federal court on Dec. 31. In one of the complaints, which is indicative of the others, Gene Kelly alleges that Monsanto is liable for damages based on “wrongful conduct and negligence” related to the manufacture and marketing of Roundup.
January 02, 2025
Woman Says ‘Wanton Acts’ Related To Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Caused Her Cancer

MOBILE, Ala. — A woman with cancer who alleges that her injury was caused by exposure to toxic substances due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill sued BP Exploration & Production Inc. and its affiliates in Alabama federal court, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for “reckless and/or willful and wanton acts.”
December 23, 2024
Florida Federal Judge Allows 5 Rebuttal Experts In Toxic Exposure Case

ORLANDO, Fla. — “Disagreement with an expert’s premises is classic cross-examination fodder” and not grounds for exclusion under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, a federal judge in Florida noted in an order denying five motions to exclude filed in an environmental contamination case.
December 20, 2024
DuPont: PFAS Class Should Be Decertified Because Key Parts Of Case Have Changed

WILMINGTON, N.C. — E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. has filed a brief in North Carolina federal court contending that a class action brought by residents pertaining to alleged contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) should be decertified because “over the course of the last year, several of the key premises advanced by Plaintiffs and relied on by this Court as the cornerstones for class certification have been revealed to be either no longer true, or never having been true.”
December 19, 2024
Panel Says Man Failed To Show Causation For His Alleged Chemical Exposure Injuries

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that a man claiming that he was injured by chemical exposure in the course of his work making a delivery of chemicals to a paper factor failed to establish medical causation and therefore the case was properly dismissed.
December 19, 2024
Judge Sends PFAS Case Back To Connecticut State Court On Jurisdictional Grounds

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut has remanded to state court a case brought by the state of Connecticut against E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. for contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), ruling that the state has disclaimed relief relating to any contamination arising on federal enclaves; therefore, the state’s claims arise “exclusively on nonfederal land” and as a result federal jurisdiction does not exist.
December 19, 2024
Attorney Closes Contentious PCB Trial Calling For $4.14B In Punitive Damages

SEATTLE — Closing arguments in a lawsuit alleging injuries from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at a Seattle area school concluded Dec. 18 in Washington state court, with plaintiffs’ counsel asking for $4.14 billion in punitive damages against Monsanto Co. for “generational harm” and Monsanto’s attorney objecting to that term while insisting that the evidence presented over the two-month trial is “inconsistent with the plaintiffs’ theory of Monsanto’s conduct.”
December 18, 2024
Government Seeks Exclusion Of Another Witness In Flint Water Tort Claims Act Case

DETROIT — The U.S. government on Dec. 17 filed a reply brief in Michigan federal court calling for the exclusion of yet another plaintiffs’ expert witness in the $722.4 million Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit against the government related to the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Mich., this time on grounds that a doctor’s “lack of medical training disqualifies her from offering testimony that would speculate about the etiologies” of the plaintiffs’ alleged physical conditions related to the contaminated water.
December 17, 2024
Plaintiffs Challenge Jurisdiction In Dismissal Of Drinking Water Case Claims

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — A group of plaintiffs asserting claims of personal injury from exposure to trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, benzene and other chemicals in their drinking water have asked a federal judge in Indiana to alter or amend an opinion and order dismissing three claims for relief, stating that there is no subject matter jurisdiction because the judge concluded that the plaintiffs lack standing.
December 17, 2024
School: Monsanto ‘Squandered’ Discovery Order Extension, Another Is Not Warranted

BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Burlington School District (BSD) on Dec. 16 filed a brief in Vermont federal court contending that Monsanto Co. “squandered” the extra time it was granted as part of an extension of discovery in the BSD’s lawsuit alleging contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and that the district court should deny Monsanto’s motion for another extension.
December 16, 2024
Payment To Lead Abatement Fund Is Not Damages, Ohio Supreme Court Says

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio appellate court erred in determining that an insured’s obligation to contribute to a lead paint abatement fund constitutes damages under insurance policies because the payment to the abatement fund was ordered to prevent future harm to children’s health from lead paint and does not constitute damages under insurance policies, the Ohio Supreme Court said in reversing the appellate court’s ruling and reinstating a trial court’s ruling.
December 16, 2024
City Says Residents Fail To Assert Constitutional Claims In Jackson Water Case

NEW ORLEANS — The city of Jackson, Miss., which is accused of contaminating the local drinking water supply with lead, has filed an appellee brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the lower court correctly held that the plaintiffs do not state constitutional violations in their complaint and that the individually named city defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.