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

Mealey's Toxic Torts

February 13, 2025
Judgment For Manufacturing Defendants In Drinking Water Contamination Case Amended

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — A federal judge in Indiana said an earlier judgment issued in favor of the owners and operators of a northeast Indiana manufacturing facility regarding three claims for relief sought by plaintiffs allegedly exposed to trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, benzene and other chemicals in their drinking water “was misdirected” in granting the plaintiffs’ motion to alter or amend the order and dismissing the claims without prejudice.
February 12, 2025
Plaintiffs Seek To Compel Discovery From Maker Of Firefighter Gear In AFFF MDL

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee (PEC) in the multidistrict litigation for the firefighting agent called aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) has filed a reply brief in South Carolina federal court seeking to compel a defendant to respond to the PEC’s requests for production of documents and interrogatories, arguing that it is “undisputed” that the defendant sold what is referred to as turnout gear (TOG) that contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to firefighters across the country.
February 12, 2025
Texas State Agencies Say They Are Immune From Paraquat Discovery, Seek Court Order

BENTON, Ill. — Texas state agencies have moved an Illinois federal court to take judicial notice of a ruling in a Texas federal court that quashed certain subpoenas that were issued in the multidistrict litigation for liability from injuries connected to the pesticide paraquat, arguing that the MDL court should rule that the agencies are immune from third-party discovery.
February 12, 2025
Insurer Says No Coverage Owed To Flint, Mich., Hospital Over Water Crisis Claims

DETROIT — An insurance company on Feb. 11 sued McLaren Health Care Corp. in Michigan federal court arguing that it has no duty to indemnify McLaren in connection with a $641 million settlement that was reached in the litigation over the lead-contaminated water claims in the city of Flint, Mich., where McLaren runs a hospital in which patients were injured during the Flint water crisis. The insurer says it has no duty to indemnify McLaren and argues that it has “no liability of any kind” under the policy it issued.
February 12, 2025
Judge Nixes Lead Injury Class Against Verizon Related To Telecommunications Cables

PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a putative lead poisoning class action brought by an employee of Verizon Communications Inc. who contended that the company is liable for injury because it failed to properly dispose of lead-sheathed telecommunications cables. The judge ruled that the plaintiff failed to “sufficiently establish a concrete and actual or imminent injury.”
February 12, 2025
Panel Affirms $1.25M Roundup Award, Says Claim Is Not Preempted By Federal Law

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri appellate panel on Feb. 11 affirmed a lower court’s judgment that awarded $1.25 million in compensatory damages to a man who sued Monsanto Co. for injuries from exposure to the herbicide Roundup, ruling that the plaintiff’s failure to warn claim is not expressly or impliedly preempted by federal law and that the trial court did not err in denying Monsanto’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV).
February 11, 2025
N.M.: U.S. Government Should Comply With Permit, Clean Up AFFF From Air Force Base

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The state of New Mexico has filed a statement in the multidistrict litigation for injuries allegedly caused by the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) pending in South Carolina federal court, requesting injunctive relief requiring the U.S. government and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to comply with the terms of a permit issued in 2018 to a local Air Force base under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act (NMHWA).
February 11, 2025
EPA Seeks Abeyance In Methane Tax Case To Sort Out Position In New Administration

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 10 filed a brief in Michigan federal court supporting his unopposed motion to hold in abeyance a case in which a business advocacy group and an oil and gas association challenge the constitutionality of the methane waste emissions charge levied under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The parties agree that, with the change in presidential administration, the EPA needs time to determine how it wishes to proceed in the case.
February 07, 2025
Amicus: High Court Review Needed In Camp Lejeune Case Over Right To Jury Trial

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bar association focused on the civil justice system has filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should grant a petition filed by plaintiffs who are challenging a lower court’s decision that they are not entitled to a jury trial in their case against the U.S. government related to water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and seeking reversal of an appellate court’s subsequent refusal to entertain their appeal. The bar association argues that the denial of the plaintiffs’ right to a jury trial warrants review.
February 06, 2025
Monsanto: Rehearing Needed Of Split 8th Circuit Ruling On PCB Liability

ST. LOUIS — Monsanto Co. on Feb. 5 filed a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that a panel’s split decision in a case about indemnification related to liability from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the untimeliness of the case’s removal to federal court conflicts with a related ruling issued by the U.S. Supreme Court.
February 04, 2025
Judge Grants Initial OK To $1M PFAS Deal Between Chemical Company And Class Members

ROME, Ga. — A federal judge in Georgia has granted preliminary approval to a partial class action settlement that requires a chemical company that manufactures and supplies products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to a northwest Georgia textile mill to pay $1 million to a group of water subscribers and ratepayers who have been detrimentally affected by the company’s contamination of their drinking water supply.
February 04, 2025
Toxic Exposure, Contamination Suit Stayed To Allow Settlement Talks To Continue

GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland federal judge granted a joint motion to stay proceedings in an insured’s suit seeking coverage for underlying toxic exposure and environmental contamination lawsuits to allow the insured and its insurer to continue settlement negotiations.
February 03, 2025
Texas Demands Jury Trial In PFAS Case Against 3M, Others

DALLAS — Texas has filed a demand for a jury trial in Texas federal court for its lawsuit against 3M Co. and other makers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in which it argues that the defendants manufactured and marketed consumer products that contain PFAS and “profited immensely” while they knew that the products posed risks to human health and the environment.
January 31, 2025
Hair Relaxer Defendants: Medical Record Redaction Not Needed, Privilege Lacking

CHICAGO — Companies sued over allegations that their hair relaxer products contain toxic chemicals have filed a brief in the multidistrict litigation for product injury claims in Illinois federal court arguing that the plaintiffs “cannot carry their burden to justify” their request to redact their mental health history from medical records in the case because the psychotherapy-patient privilege does not apply.
January 31, 2025
High Court Review Of Peruvian Lead Smelter Case Is Not Needed, Claimants Say

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Catholic clergywomen and Peruvian children who sued the operators of a lead smelter for injuries have filed an opposition brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should deny a petition for certiorari asking whether Peru’s sovereignty is protected by the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), which the companies say requires all litigation to be conducted in Peru. The respondents contend that “the petitioners cite no decision barring state common-law claims in comparable circumstances” and therefore the lawsuit they filed in Missouri is valid.
January 30, 2025
Nearly 500 Plaintiffs Say Chemical Companies Knowingly Exposed Them To Mercury

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Hundreds of plaintiffs filed an amended complaint against a corporation and its affiliates on Jan. 29 in Tennessee federal court contending that they are liable for “willfully using a toxic substance in their manufacturing processes, despite knowing that workers were being harmed,” and that they were “driven by profit, with full knowledge of the harm their actions would cause” as they exposed the plaintiffs to mercury.
January 30, 2025
Monsanto Seeks Exclusion Of Plaintiffs’ Causation Expert In Roundup Cancer Case

SAN FRANCISCO — Monsanto Co. on Jan. 29 moved in California federal court to exclude a plaintiffs’ expert in litigation over allegations that the herbicide Roundup causes cancer on grounds that his general causation opinion is inadmissible because he “simply parrots selected epidemiological studies whose conclusions he has not independently analyzed” and because he failed to employ a reliable methodology when reaching his opinion on specific causation.
January 30, 2025
2 Alabama Municipalities Seek Remand Of AFFF Cases, Say 3M’s Removal Was Untimely

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two municipalities in Alabama have filed a joint motion to remand their respective cases against the 3M Co. and other makers of the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), to state court on grounds that “3M waited too long to remove, based on a defense it never had to begin with.”
January 30, 2025
Couple Says Bid For Punitive Damages For Lung Injury From Stone Cutting Is Valid

LOS ANGELES — A couple that contends that artificial stone manufacturers are liable for causing the husband to develop lung disease as a result of his work as a cutter, fabricator and/or installer of stone countertops has filed a brief in California state court arguing that, with regard to one defendant in particular, the couple has established their rights to seek punitive damages because they have alleged specific facts that are sufficient to make that claim.
January 29, 2025
Judge: Discretionary Function Exception Does Not Apply To Flint Tort Claims Case

DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan on Jan. 28 denied the U.S. government’s motion to dismiss the Flint water crisis Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit pursuant to the discretionary function exception (DFE), ruling that the DFE is inapplicable to the “actions and inactions” of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in response to the Flint water crisis. The judge’s ruling addressed only the applicability of the DFE to the lawsuit.
January 28, 2025
Ohio Village, Norfolk Southern Settle Train Derailment Claims For $22 Million

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The village of East Palestine, Ohio, and Norfolk Southern Corp. on Jan. 27 jointly announced a $22 million settlement to resolve all claims brought by the village arising from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in 2023 that released toxic chemicals into the environment, according to a news release posted on the village’s website. Litigation involving other parties in the train derailment remain active.
January 28, 2025
Insurers Owe Defense, Indemnity For Underlying PFAS, AFFF Suits, Insured Says

SAN FRANCISCO — An insured maintains in its reply in support of its partial motion for summary judgment, filed in California federal court, that its insurers owe coverage for underlying bodily injury and property damage lawsuits related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) allegedly contained in aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) that were manufactured, sold and distributed by the insured because the underlying suits are potentially covered under the policies and the insurers failed to prove that their policies’ pollution exclusion bars coverage.
January 24, 2025
Man Sues Firm For Robocalls Attempting To Obtain Camp Lejeune Water Crisis Clients

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man has filed a putative class action against a law firm and a legal conversion center in North Carolina federal court contending that they violated federal law pertaining to robocalls in an attempt to solicit him as a client in the lawsuit for injuries allegedly caused by contaminated drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
January 24, 2025
Government Seeks More Time To Respond To Camp Lejeune Water Case At Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The acting solicitor general has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for more time to respond to a petition filed by plaintiffs who are challenging a lower court’s decision and seeking reversal of an appellate court’s subsequent refusal to entertain their appeal, that held that the plaintiffs are not entitled to a jury trial in their case against the U.S. government related to water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
January 23, 2025
Plaintiffs Seeks Damages From Apple For Selling Smartwatch Bands That Contain PFAS

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs have filed a putative class action against Apple Inc. in California federal court contending that its smartwatch bands contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which the plaintiffs argue constitutes fraudulent business practices because Apple “intentionally misrepresented and/or concealed material facts with the intent to deceive” customers.