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Mealey's Toxic Torts

  • December 08, 2025

    Journal Editor Retracts Article On Safety Of Roundup Due To ‘Critical Issues’

    NEW YORK — Citing concerns regarding the authorship and content of an article on the safety of the herbicide Roundup that was published 25 years ago in a scientific journal, one of the publication’s editors in chief on Dec. 5 retracted the article, which had previously concluded “there is no potential for Roundup herbicide to pose a health risk to humans.” The editor said that the retraction is “based on several critical issues that are considered to undermine the academic integrity of this article and its conclusions.”

  • December 08, 2025

    Review Of Jurisdiction Issue In PFAS Exposure Suit Not Warranted, Insurer Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny an insured’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that a district court erred in remanding a declaratory judgment claim and retaining jurisdiction over breach of contract and bad faith claims in a dispute over coverage for underlying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure suits because every other federal appellate court agrees with the Sixth Circuit’s disposition, an insurer says in its Dec. 5 response brief.

  • December 08, 2025

    Federal Judge Will Allow Experts To Testify In Flint, Mich., Tort Claims Case

    DETROIT — A Michigan federal judge largely denied a series of motions filed to exclude experts in the $722.4 million Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit against the government related to the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Mich., noting that because the case will be heard as a bench trial, the judge can assess the admissibility of the testimony after hearing it during trial.

  • December 03, 2025

    West Virginia, Illinois Settle PCB Cases With Monsanto For A Combined $180.5M

    CHICAGO — West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey on Dec. 2 announced a $60.5 million settlement with Monsanto Co. and its affiliates to resolve claims involving contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The announcement came one day after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that the state has reached a $120 million settlement with Monsanto to resolve similar claims related to PCB contamination.

  • December 02, 2025

    Government: High Court Review Of Glyphosate Case Needed, FIFRA Ruling ‘Incorect’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on Dec. 1 filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the petition of Monsanto Co., which is challenging a $1.25 million damages award for injuries from exposure to the herbicide Roundup. The government says that the lower court’s decision, which rejected Monsanto’s argument that the lawsuit was preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), is “incorrect.”

  • December 02, 2025

    No Defense, Indemnity Owed For Underlying Silica Dust Exposure Suits, Insurer Says

    MINNEAPOLIS — A commercial liability insurer says in a complaint filed in Minnesota federal court that it owes no duty to defend or indemnify its insured against underlying bodily injury suits stemming from exposure to silica dust emitted from the insured’s quartz products because its policies’ pollution exclusions bar coverage for the underlying suits.

  • November 26, 2025

    Former Ohio Train Settlement Administrator Rebuffs Call For Sanctions, Contempt

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Kroll Settlement Administration, the former settlement administrator of the $600 million settlement reached in the litigation related to the 2023 derailment of a train operated by Norfolk Southern Corp. in East Palestine, Ohio, has filed a brief in Ohio federal court arguing that it should deny class counsel’s motion for sanctions and a finding of contempt related to Kroll’s conduct because class counsel’s position “has no support in the Court’s orders or in contemporaneous evidence.”

  • November 26, 2025

    Panel Denies Morgan & Morgan’s Attorney Fee Appeal In Ohio Train Derailment Case

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 25 affirmed a lower court’s ruling that denied law firm Morgan & Morgan’s challenge to the attorney fee award distribution in the settlement of litigation stemming from the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, ruling that any harm the firm suffered was “a result of its own doing” because it advocated for a quick-pay provision in the settlement that allows plaintiffs’ counsel to be paid soon after the  settlement is approved, even while the settlement is still subject to appeal.

  • November 26, 2025

    Lowe’s To Pay $12.5M Penalty For Contractors’ Violations Of Lead Renovation Rule

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) on Nov. 25 announced a proposed nationwide settlement with Lowe’s Home Centers LLC to resolve alleged violations of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule (RRP), under which Lowe’s will pay a $12.5 million penalty.

  • November 26, 2025

    11 Minnesota Cities Sue PFAS Makers For Water Contamination From Firefighting Foam

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — The city of Brooklyn Center, Minn., and 10 other municipalities in the state have sued the makers of the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) in South Carolina federal court, arguing that the manufacturers of AFFF are liable for groundwater contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are active ingredients in AFFF.  The cities contend that the defendants knew that PFAS are toxic and yet sold them anyway.

  • November 25, 2025

    Judge Sanctions Attorneys $10,000 For Contempt In Camp Lejeune Phone Call Case

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia on Nov. 24 sanctioned attorneys $10,000 for contempt for their conduct in a class action over alleged illegal phone calls that solicited clients for mass tort cases relating to toxic waterexposure at Camp Lejeune. The judge ruled that the attorneys in question provided an “insufficient” explanation for their conduct once they were ordered to show why they should not be held in contempt for their failure to comply with the court’s order approving the class notice plan.

  • November 25, 2025

    Panel Says $28M Glyphosate Cancer Award Does Not Violate Monsanto’s Rights

    SAN DIEGO — An appeals panel in California on Nov. 24 affirmed a $28 million combined verdict against Monsanto for a man who developed cancer from exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, ruling that the plaintiff’s claims were not preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and that the punitive damages award did not violate Monsanto’s due process rights.

  • November 24, 2025

    Norfolk Southern: Many Experts Fail Daubert Standard In Ohio Train Derailment Case

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Norfolk Southern Corp. on Nov. 21 filed multiple reply briefs in Ohio federal court, seeking to exclude seven expert witnesses for the plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit over toxic contamination from the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.  Norfolk Southern argues that, pursuant to Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., all of the experts, in one way or another, lack reliability.

  • November 24, 2025

    Illinois High Court To Decide If Pollution Exclusion Applies To Regulated Emissions

    CHICAGO — The Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a certified question from the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals regarding what effect, if any, a permit or regulation that authorizes emissions has in determining whether a pollution exclusion should be applied as a bar to coverage for bodily injury claims related to chemical discharges from the insured facility.

  • November 20, 2025

    Panel Reverses, Says 3M Has ‘Colorable Federal Defense’ In PFAS Pollution Case

    BOSTON — A panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 19 reversed and remanded to Maine federal court the state’s lawsuit against the 3M Co. Inc. alleging injury from water contamination caused by the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), ruling that 3M is entitled to federal jurisdiction because it has a “colorable” federal contractor defense.

  • November 20, 2025

    N.J. Township Wants To Challenge Settlement In DuPont Plant Site PFAS Suit

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey township wants to intervene in litigation brought by the state in federal court against 3M Co., EIDP Inc., formerly E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., and its affiliates related to contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) stemming from activity at DuPont’s Chambers Works plant so it can challenge a proposed settlement that it claims is “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and unlawful unless modified.”

  • November 19, 2025

    5th Circuit Reverses, Says Jackson, Miss., Residents’ Claims Against City Are Valid

    NEW ORLEANS — A divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling and held that residents who sued Jackson, Miss., for allegedly contaminating the local drinking water supply with lead have valid due process claims against the city.

  • November 18, 2025

    Judge Preliminarily Approves $27M PFAS Settlement Between Residents And DuPont

    ALBANY, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York has granted preliminary approval to a $27 million class action settlement to resolve a long-running dispute over the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination of drinking water in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., finding that the settlement satisfies the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a)(1)-(4).

  • November 18, 2025

    Defendants Insist That Claims Of Water Contamination Fail For Lack Of Evidence

    ALEXANDRIA, La. — The defendants in a groundwater contamination lawsuit pending in Louisiana federal court have filed a reply brief arguing that the case should be dismissed pursuant to a Lone Pine order because the plaintiffs cannot produce prima facie evidence of an injury, and contending that the plaintiffs have failed to comply with the district court’s directives.

  • November 18, 2025

    Costco, Consumer Jointly Dismiss Class Claims Over PFAS In Baby Wipes

    SAN FRANCISCO — A consumer, Costco Wholesale Corp. and a baby wipe manufacturer on Nov. 17 filed a joint stipulation of dismissal of the consumer’s putative class action alleging that Costco’s Kirkland Signature Baby Wipes contain unsafe levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); the court in July denied Costco’s motion to reconsider a prior order refusing to dismiss the suit.

  • November 17, 2025

    New Mexico High Court Grants Cert In Oil And Gas Pollution Suit Dismissed By Panel

    SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by several environmental groups and people surrounded by fracking sites and other oil and gas infrastructure in the state’s San Juan and Permian Basins challenging a state appellate court’s dismissal of claims that the state failed to regulate production activities that reportedly led to the harmful release of toxic chemicals and the exacerbation of climate change effects in violation of the New Mexico Constitution.

  • November 17, 2025

    Court Grants Discontinuance Of Cross-Appeals In Glyphosate Cancer Lawsuit

    PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Superior Court granted a joint application to discontinue cross-appeals filed by Monsanto Co. and a glyphosate cancer plaintiff who won $404,308,904.11 against the company in trial court, according to a note on the docket.

  • November 13, 2025

    Chemours Tells 4th Circuit Group ‘Contravenes’ Law, Lacks Standing In PFAS Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Chemours Co. FC LLC on Nov. 12 filed a reply brief in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that an environmental advocacy group “contravenes controlling case law” in its brief responding to Chemours’ appeal of a trial court decision in a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination case. Chemours says that the group seeks “to turn every exceedance of any environmental permit, no matter how minor, into a basis for an injunction, substituting judicial relief for regulatory solutions.”

  • November 13, 2025

    Monsanto: Plaintiffs’ Expert’s Opinions In Glyphosate Cancer Case Are ‘Unreliable’

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Monsanto Co. has filed a reply brief in Delaware state court arguing that the plaintiffs’ opposition to the proposed exclusion of their expert in their glyphosate cancer lawsuit “fails to rectify the fundamental issues” with the expert’s “unreliable opinions and fails to adequately rebut” the arguments Monsanto made in its motion to exclude the expert’s testimony.

  • November 13, 2025

    EPA Proposes Changes To PFAS Reporting In Pesticides, Food And Cosmetics

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a prepublication version of a proposed rule that would amend Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulations related to reporting on products that contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The changes would exclude reporting on PFAS in pesticides, food and cosmetics, among other products.