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

Mealey's Toxic Torts

March 17, 2025
Magistrate Judge: Radioactive Materials Injury Case Not Filed In Timely Manner

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A federal magistrate judge has issued a report in which he recommends that a federal judge in New York dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit brought by a husband who contends that his wife’s terminal cancer was caused by radioactive waste buried on their property. The magistrate judge ruled that the complaint was filed in an untimely manner.
March 14, 2025
Monsanto Says Evidence For $100M PCB Verdict Not ‘Clear And Convincing’

SEATTLE — Monsanto Co. has filed two reply briefs in Washington state court, one seeking a new trial and another seeking judgment as a matter of law (JMOL), in response to a $100 million verdict for exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at a Seattle-area school, arguing that the plaintiffs cannot show that PCBs contain a design defect and contending that the plaintiffs “lack clear and convincing evidence to support punitive damages.”
March 14, 2025
Associations Urge High Court Reversal Of Ruling Finding Nondelegation Violation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Telecom provider petitioners and broadband association petitioners filed reply briefs on March 13 in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging reversal of an en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that a subsidy program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine” after the high court granted two petitions for a writ of certiorari and consolidated cases concerning whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to delegate to a private entity.
March 14, 2025
Panel: Tenant’s Mold Claim Precluded By Release Clause In Rental Contract

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Court of Appeals has affirmed a decision in favor of a landlord and a property management company in a lawsuit in which a tenant had contended that they were liable for injuries related to toxic mold exposure, ruling that the contract the parties signed released the defendants from liability.
March 14, 2025
Judge Says Environmental Group Lacks Standing In PFAS Water Contamination Case

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge in Tennessee has dismissed a lawsuit brought by an environmental advocacy group against a landfill operator related to water contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), concluding that the allegations for violations of federal laws governing clean water are “wholly past violations” and that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring their claims.
March 13, 2025
EPA Announces Long List Of Actions To Review, Overhaul Environmental Regulations

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Administrator Lee Zeldin on March 12 announced more than 20 federal actions to reconsider, terminate, overhaul and restructure a laundry list of environmental regulations in a stated effort to lower living costs, revitalize the auto industry and return regulatory powers to the states.
March 13, 2025
Putative Class Says Girl Scout Cookies Contain Toxic Heavy Metals, Glyphosate

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Two women have filed a putative class action in New York federal court against the Girl Scouts of the United States of America alleging that the cookies sold by the organization contain heavy metals, including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, as well as glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.
March 13, 2025
Texas Says PFAS Case Belongs In State Court Due To Lack Of Diversity Jurisdiction

DALLAS — Texas filed a reply brief in Texas federal court on March 12 in support of its motion to remand a lawsuit against 3M Co. and other makers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on grounds that diversity jurisdiction does not exist because the state is the real party in interest in the case.
March 13, 2025
New Jersey High Court Ponders Designating Roundup Litigation As A Mass Tort

TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey Supreme Court has issued a notice to the bar that it has received a second application to designate for multicounty litigation (MCL) lawsuits against Monsanto Co. and its affiliates related to claims alleging injuries from the herbicide Roundup. MCL designation would make Roundup litigation a mass tort in the state.
March 13, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Gives Monsanto More Time To File Roundup Preemption Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on March 11 granted an application for an extension of time sought by Monsanto Co. to file a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a lower court’s decision in a glyphosate cancer lawsuit that implicates the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and has ramifications for the extent to which FIFRA expressly or impliedly preempts state law failure-to-warn claims.
March 12, 2025
Split Panel Says Maryland, South Carolina AFFF Cases Belong In Federal Court

RICHMOND, Va. — A split panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that two lower courts wrongly remanded separate lawsuits related to injuries from exposure to the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains the active ingredient per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), because defendant 3M Co. established that federal removal was warranted in light of the fact that the product’s design was dictated by specifications provided by the U.S. government.
March 12, 2025
Monsanto Seeks More Time To File Supreme Court Petition In Roundup Preemption Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a case docketed on March 11, Monsanto Co. applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for an extension to file a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a lower court’s decision in a glyphosate cancer lawsuit that implicates the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and has ramifications for the extent to which FIFRA expressly or impliedly preempts state law failure-to-warn claims.
March 12, 2025
9th Circuit Hears Debate Over Risk Level, Exposure In Roundup Labeling Dispute

PASADENA, Calif. — Attorneys presented oral arguments before a panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and debated whether the argument asserted by the plaintiffs that the herbicide Roundup contains N-Nitrosoglyphosate (NNG) at a level that presents a safety risk is plausible. The attorneys also debated whether the product was mislabeled, with the plaintiffs’ attorney contending that the moment the product is opened, the exposure level to NNG exceeds the safety threshold of 1 part per million (ppm).
March 11, 2025
Agency: 3M’s Removal Of PFAS Case Relies On Arguments That Have Been ‘Rejected’

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A municipal water and sewer authority on March 10 moved in South Carolina federal court seeking to remand its lawsuit against 3M Co. Inc. and others related to injuries allegedly caused by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water, arguing that the legal and factual arguments made by 3M in support of removing the litigation to federal court “have been rejected numerous times already” by multiple courts.
March 11, 2025
Mich. Attorney General Says Flint Indictment Case Against Her Fails Due To Immunity

DETROIT — In two separate reply briefs filed in Michigan federal court, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Assistant Attorney General and Solicitor Fadwa A. Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy argue that they are all protected by “absolute prosecutorial immunity” for all of the claims brought against them by former Michigan state official Richard L. Baird related to their criminal prosecution of him in connection with the Flint water crisis. In her reply brief, Nessel contends that she did not violate Baird’s constitutional rights and, therefore, his complaint “cannot survive.”
March 11, 2025
ExxonMobil Waives Response To Man’s Bid For Reversal Of Lung Injury Decision

AUSTIN, Texas — ExxonMobil Corp. has waived its response to a Texas Supreme Court petition filed by a man with pulmonary fibrosis seeking reversal of a decision by a state appeals court that affirmed summary judgment for ExxonMobil in his lawsuit alleging that the company is liable for creating work conditions in which he developed his illness.
March 10, 2025
Law Firms File 2 Identical Injury Cases Related To Deepwater Horizon Incident

WILMINGTON, Del. — Two law firms have filed two identical cases against BP Exploration & Production Inc. (BP) alleging injuries for different individuals related to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and the subsequent cleanup efforts. In one complaint, which is indicative of the other, the plaintiff contends that she developed cancer from exposure to oil and hydrocarbons from the oil spill and from exposure to chemical dispersants that were used to contain those hazardous chemicals during the remediation.
March 07, 2025
Parties In U.S. Government’s Chloroprene Emissions Injury Case Stipulate Dismissal

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana has issued a minute entry indicating that the U.S. government and a chemical company that had been engaged in an injury lawsuit involving carcinogenic chloroprene emissions from neoprene manufacturing operations intend to file a stipulation of dismissal that has been agreed to by all parties.
March 06, 2025
More Partial Class Settlements Reached Over Toxic PFAS In Georgia Drinking Water

ROME, Ga. — Three more defendants in a Georgia federal court case with admitted involvement in contaminating groundwater with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in northwest Georgia have agreed to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to a temporary drinking water fund through two proposed partial class action settlement agreements reached with a group of water subscribers and ratepayers.
March 05, 2025
Consolidation Sought In 3 Of 5 Suits Over Philadelphia Suburb Plant Explosion

PHILADELPHIA — Attorneys representing individuals and businesses who allege that they were negatively impacted by a Feb. 17 fire and explosion at a plant in suburban Philadelphia filed two motions in a Pennsylvania court, one seeking consolidation of three out of five class complaints filed over the incident and one seeking to appoint interim class counsel and interim co-liaison counsel.
March 04, 2025
D.C. Circuit Grants EPA’s Motion For Abeyance In PFAS CERCLA Designation Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to hold in abeyance for 60 days a case in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and six trade associations petitioned for review of a final rule promulgated by the agency that added two widely used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of hazardous substances covered by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
March 03, 2025
5th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Chiropractor’s Claims In Insurance Billing Row

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 28 affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a chiropractor’s fraud and breach of contract claims against a company with whom she contracted to perform independent medical examinations (IMEs) for workers’ compensation claims, finding that the lower court correctly dismissed the suit because she failed to show an injury in fact related to her claims that the company overbilled insurers for her services.
March 03, 2025
Federal Judge Dismisses Investor Claims Over 2023 Norfolk Southern Derailment

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed all claims brought against Norfolk Southern Corp. and certain of its executives by investors following a 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that led to a controlled detonation of toxic chemicals, finding that the railroad company and its employees’ statements about its safety measures and messaging were not misleading and that they did not have an obligation to disclose risks and uncertainties that required disclosure in the offering documents under Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation S-K.
March 03, 2025
Ore. Magistrate Judge: Bulk Of Residents’ Groundwater Contamination Claims Valid

PENDLETON, Ore. — A federal magistrate judge in Oregon, in addressing motions to dismiss, issued findings and recommendation that a group of residents who sued the Port of Morrow and several agricultural companies pursuant to state law and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for alleged contamination of groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin can pursue most, but not all, of their claims for relief.
March 03, 2025
High Court Lets Stand Ruling That Nixed Bid To Dismiss Peruvian Lead Injury Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 denied review of a case in which American companies that operate a lead smelter in Peru sought review of an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that upheld a district court’s refusal to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Catholic clergywomen and Peruvian children who allege they have been injured by the smelter.