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October 15, 2026
MIAMI — A Florida federal judge issued an order setting a schedule for bellwether jury trials in a mass action brought by current and former servicemembers and their family members against several military housing companies who owned, operated and managed their rental housing at Naval Air Station Key West (NAS Key West) and are accused of concealing toxic mold, asbestos and other conditions at the properties that caused the plaintiffs to suffer various health consequences and emotional distress.
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October 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted Monsanto Co.’s petition for a writ of certiorari in a case brought by a man who says he developed cancer after exposure to the active ingredient in Roundup, vacated the judgment that followed a $28 million combined award for the man and remanded the case to a California appellate court for further consideration in light of the June 25 decision in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell.
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October 13, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied a motion to dismiss or stay a lawsuit pending resolution of a parallel action in Georgia state court after determining that a stay or dismissal is not warranted because it is not clear that all of the issues in the California federal suit related to various insurers’ duty to defend an insured in underlying silica bodily injury suits will be resolved in the Georgia suit.
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October 13, 2026
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Primary and umbrella insurers filed suit in a Virginia federal court seeking a declaration that they have no duty to defend or indemnify their insured, a stone product supplier, against underlying silica bodily injury suits because their policies’ exclusions for silica and pollution bar coverage.
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October 09, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge dismissed a town’s putative class action lawsuit against several telecommunications companies for public nuisance, negligence and trespass caused by the companies’ alleged practice of abandoning “toxic lead-sheathed telecommunications cables” due to lack of standing after finding that the plaintiff’s injuries are “speculative” and that it did not bring factual allegations of “contamination.”
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October 09, 2026
The states of Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii and Mississippi and Monsanto Co. and two related entities announced structured settlements resolving the states’ claims of environmental contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls for $132.3 million of up-front and future guaranteed backstops and a possible total of $320 million.
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October 08, 2026
LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan federal magistrate judge granted a motion for an order to show cause filed by insurers in a coverage dispute stemming from lead-contaminated water supplied by an insured city after determining that a former city employee who failed to show up at a deposition must appear before the court to show cause as to why he should not be held in contempt of court for failure to appear at the deposition.
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October 07, 2026
PITTSBURGH — Granting a motion to dismiss in part, a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed without prejudice for failure to state a claim one for medical monitoring trust funds brought by minors who sued a hydraulic fracturing operator, alleging that operations have caused them various injuries.
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October 07, 2026
CLEVELAND — Two umbrella insurers on Oct. 6 filed a notice of cross-appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals following an Ohio federal judge’s determination that the insurers lack standing as no coverage dispute exists based on the finding that the primary insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify the insured in underlying lawsuits stemming from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
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October 05, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas federal magistrate judge partially granted a motion to compel discovery filed by plaintiffs in a toxic chemical exposure case after determining that the remaining defendant must produce a number of documents and information related to its facility’s emissions dating back to the date on which the facility was acquired by the defendant because the plaintiffs met their burden of showing that the requested documents and information are relevant.
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October 05, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Firefighters, unions and the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut (UPFFA) who filed a putative class complaint alleging harm from certain personal protective equipment containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have presented “apparently contradictory positions” on medical monitoring claims, a federal judge in Connecticut wrote, denying the plaintiffs’ motion to certify two medical monitoring-related questions to the Connecticut Supreme Court without prejudice.
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October 05, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — A trial court overseeing the aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) multidistrict litigation erred when it denied on the basis of improper venue California leave to file a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction after its case over per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination was transferred to that court, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, summarily reversing and remanding.
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October 05, 2026
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina clarified that in a Sept. 15 denial of water utilities’ motion to reconsider a May partial denial of a joint motion to remand nine cases in an aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) multidistrict litigation, he also denied the utilities’ request for interlocutory review.
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October 05, 2026
HONOLULU — A federal magistrate judge in Hawaii issued three orders severing three groups of plaintiffs who were set to proceed to fast-track trials in October and November from two consolidated lawsuits related to groundwater contamination from a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base and opening new civil cases for those groups of plaintiffs to proceed separately to trial on an expedited basis.
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October 05, 2026
RALEIGH, N.C. — Four federal judges in North Carolina reappointed the Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group (PLG) in the coordinated Camp Lejeune Water Litigation for a year, opining that the previous reappointment order for a period of four months “had the desired effect on the parties and that progress toward a global settlement is being made.”
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October 02, 2026
NEW YORK — In a lengthy docket order, a New York federal judge denied class certification in a suit alleging that Dollar Tree Stores Inc. sold lead-contaminated fruit pouches, adopting a magistrate judge’s findings that individualized questions about each child’s exposure, injuries and medical history prevented class treatment and that the plaintiffs had not established standing or a workable framework for a medical-monitoring class.
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October 02, 2026
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Following a joint stipulation of dismissal, a federal judge in New York dismissed a consolidated amended class action complaint alleging that a baby food manufacturer negligently, recklessly and/or intentionally failed to fully disclose the presence of toxic heavy metals and/or other toxins in its baby food.
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October 02, 2026
HAMMOND, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion for class certification filed by 11 minors who are suing manufacturing companies for contaminating the area where they lived and attended elementary school with lead, granting certification of their proposed medical monitoring class but denying certification of the proposed personal injury class because the plaintiffs “suffer from dozens of different conditions.”
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October 02, 2026
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by Mead Johnson & Company LLC, Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. and Abbott Laboratories after the appellate panel reversed an order denying remand of five Pennsylvania cases that had been removed and joined with hundreds of others in a multidistrict litigation alleging that certain cow’s milk-based infant formula caused premature infants to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
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September 30, 2026
ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge denied a spray foam manufacturer’s motion for attorney fees from a homeowner who filed suit after falling ill from the effects of allegedly toxic foam used to insulate her home, ruling that even though the plaintiff’s claims against the manufacturer were dismissed on summary judgment, they were “not so substantially groundless as to warrant a fee award.”
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September 30, 2026
SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on Sept. 29 granted a woman’s motion to certify a statewide class bringing claims against a tampon manufacturer for violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by allegedly misrepresenting its tampons as safe when they in fact contained lead in its tampons and granted in part and denied in part a defense motion to exclude the plaintiff’s expert witness.
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September 29, 2026
LOS ANGELES — An insurer filed a notice of appeal on Sept. 28 to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals following a California federal judge’s ruling that a pollution exclusion does not relieve the insurer of its duty to defend its insured against an underlying personal injury suit stemming from a claimant’s exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas.
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September 29, 2026
LANSING, Mich. — Underlying plaintiffs who filed two class action lawsuits seeking damages caused by lead-contaminated water supplied by a city argue that the city’s insurers have a duty to defend and indemnify the city for a $25 million consent settlement reached in the underlying class action suits because the insurers cannot dispute that the settlement between the city and the underlying plaintiffs was “reasonable and in good faith,” the underlying plaintiffs say in support of a motion for summary judgment filed in Michigan federal court.
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September 28, 2026
DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado dismissed with prejudice fraud and misrepresentation, breach of warranty and negligent infliction of emotional distress claims against the manufacturers of a plane and one of its components brought by flight attendants who say they incurred injuries from a “fume event” during a flight, finding that the flight attendants’ allegations were conclusory.
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September 25, 2026
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge granted a joint motion by several manufacturers to dismiss Monsanto Co.’s claims against them seeking indemnification for litigation it faces related to alleged injuries from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), finding that Monsanto failed to link the litigation against it to the specific chemicals it sold to the defendants under contracts allegedly providing for indemnification by the purchasers, but granting it leave to amend.