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

Mealey's Toxic Torts

August 09, 2023
Plaintiffs Say Monsanto Liable For Wrongful Conduct As More Cases Are Sent To MDL

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) has transferred three cases to the Roundup product liability MDL in California federal court. In one of the transferred cases, which asserts claims that are typical of the others, the plaintiffs argue that Monsanto Co., the maker of Roundup, is liable for negligent and wrongful conduct related to manufacturing and selling the herbicide product, which contains the active ingredient glyphosate.
August 09, 2023
Sports Drink Company Says PFAS Case Against It Is ‘Fundamentally Flawed’

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A nutrition company that makes sports drinks has moved in New York federal court to dismiss a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination lawsuit related to some of its drinks, arguing that the plaintiff’s theories are “fundamentally flawed.”
August 09, 2023
Monsanto Insists Plaintiff’s Glyphosate Expert Is Unreliable, Should Be Excluded

SAN FRANCISCO — Monsanto Co. filed a reply brief in California federal court on Aug. 8, arguing that the plaintiff’s expert in a glyphosate cancer lawsuit related to the herbicide Roundup failed to perform the two essential steps for reliable differential diagnosis and, therefore, his opinions are unreliable.
August 08, 2023
South Carolina Says PFAS Makers Liable For Pollution, Misleading The Public

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina on Aug. 7 sued the 3M Co. and several entities affiliated with E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. in state court alleging that they are liable for damages related to contamination of drinking water with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and that the companies misled the public and government regulators by “consistently and publicly denying that their PFAS products presented any harm to human health or the environment.”
August 08, 2023
Monsanto Objects To $72M PCB Judgment, Says Plaintiffs’ Motion Is ‘Improper’

SEATTLE — Monsanto filed a brief in Washington state court arguing that the court should reject the proposed final judgment for two plaintiffs who won $72 million for injuries from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) because it is “improper” in several respects and misstates the jury’s verdict.
August 07, 2023
Amici Support DuPont’s Attempt To Get Supreme Court To Review $40M PFAS Verdict

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Aug. 4, multiple parties filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.’s petition for review of a $40 million per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) verdict. In one of the briefs, the DRI Center for Law and Public Policy argues that if the verdict is upheld it will undermine multidistrict litigation (MDL) as a way to handle mass torts.
August 01, 2023
Fracking Operator Joins Agency’s Motion To Dismiss Dispute Over Fracking Report

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A hydraulic fracturing operator joined a motion to dismiss filed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) with the state Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) in an appeal filed by a resident who says the DEP failed to act in response to contamination of his water supply from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that were used in fracking operations. The operator adopts the DEP’s argument that the resident attempts to “bootstrap” other general claims of DEP inaction regarding soil and air concerns that are outside the EHB’s jurisdiction.
August 01, 2023
Amicus Says U.S. Supreme Court Should Hear DuPont’s Appeal Of $40M PFAS Verdict

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Product Liability Advisory Council Inc. (PLAC) on July 31 filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should grant a petition filed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. seeking review of a $40 million per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) verdict, saying the petition “raises issues of exceptional importance for tort litigation and the federal court system.”
July 27, 2023
Native American Tribe Seeks Punitive Damages From 3M, Others For PFAS Pollution

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A Native American tribe has sued 3M Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and others in South Carolina federal court contending that they have polluted Lake Superior with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), leading to drinking water contamination. The tribe argues further that the defendants knew, or should have known, that PFAS chemicals are “extremely hazardous.”
July 27, 2023
Supplemental Briefing Called For In 11th Circuit Glyphosate Case, Monsanto Says

ATLANTA — Following a split decision of the en banc 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that remanded a lawsuit regarding a product labeling dispute involving the herbicide Roundup, Monsanto Co. has moved for leave to file supplemental briefing as the case returns to the original panel for a decision on federal preemption. Monsanto says it believes that the Circuit Court would benefit from additional briefing on issues pertaining to the ordinary principles of statutory interpretation.
July 27, 2023
Judge Stays Jackson Water Case In Light Of Immunity Defense Asserted By Officials

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal magistrate judge in Mississippi has stayed proceedings in the lawsuit brought by residents pertaining to the contaminated water crisis in the city of Jackson, ruling that pursuant to local rules of civil procedure, when any party asserts an immunity — which city officials have done in this case — that assertion stays “the attorney conference and disclosure requirements and all discovery, pending the court’s ruling on the motion, including any appeal.”
July 27, 2023
Glyphosate-Based Herbicides May Disrupt Various Biological Functions, Study Says

NEW YORK — Researchers in Brazil have published a study in an environmental journal in the United States in which they conclude that glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) may affect regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis function, leading to disruption of hypothalamic and pituitary regulation, iodide uptake and other biological processes.
July 27, 2023
Glyphosate Cancer Plaintiffs Insist Expert Is Qualified, Oppose Bid To Exclude

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs who sued Monsanto Co. for alleged injuries from exposure to the herbicide Roundup have filed a brief in California federal court arguing that their expert is “an eminently qualified oncologist and hematologist whose opinions have previously been accepted” in the multidistrict litigation because they comply with Federal Rules of Evidence and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
July 27, 2023
Experts Properly Admitted In Chemical Exposure Case, Wisconsin Court Says

MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin trial court did not err in allowing expert testimony during a trial in which a worker says he was injured from exposure to the chemical diacetyl, a state appellate court ruled, upholding a $5.3 million jury award.
July 27, 2023
Insurer Owes More Than $90M For Past Defense Costs In Chemical Exposure Suit

CHICAGO — An insurer must reimburse its insureds for more than $90 million in defense costs incurred by the insureds for an underlying chemical exposure lawsuit arising out of discharges of ethylene oxide (EtO) from the insureds’ sterilization facilities, an Illinois federal judge said.
July 26, 2023
Chemical Company Says EPA Risk Value For Ethylene Oxide Emissions Is Flawed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A chemical company and two groups filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals supporting their request for review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule for emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants, contending that the agency improperly relied on its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) inhalation cancer risk value for ethylene oxide dating to 2016.
July 26, 2023
Panel Says Group’s Challenge To PFAS Rule-Making Process Is Moot

MILWAUKEE — An appellate panel in Wisconsin vacated and remanded a lower court decision on grounds that the underlying issue in the complaint related to the regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has been resolved through the rule-making process of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), which renders the appeal moot.
July 21, 2023
Insurers Urge Ohio High Court To Reverse Ruling In Lead Paint Coverage Suit

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court should reverse a state appellate court’s ruling that an insured’s obligation to contribute to a lead paint abatement fund constitutes damages under applicable insurance policies because the decision nullifies prior rulings made by the Ohio high court, the insurers maintain in a brief on the merits.
July 20, 2023
Federal Judge Allows Detainees’ Pandemic Cleaner Poisoning Claims To Proceed

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Putative class claims first filed in March by detainees who say they were poisoned by a cleaning solution the facility operator used multiple times an hour between February 2020 and April 2021 as a purported safety measure against COVID-19 “fall within the heartland of delayed discovery cases,” a federal judge in California ruled, denying a motion to partially dismiss the complaint based on the purported applicable statute of limitations.
July 18, 2023
2nd Circuit Affirms, Finds Removal Of Love Canal Claims Was Untimely

NEW YORK — A group of state entities and companies that were involved in the cleanup of a former waste disposal site near an unused canal under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act failed to timely remove 19 cases brought by individuals who live near the site and allegedly suffer health problems as a result of the contamination at the site, a majority of a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the remand of the cases to state court.
July 17, 2023
Jury Hits Monsanto With $72M Verdict In Seattle-Area School PCB Injury Lawsuit

SEATTLE — A jury in a Washington state court on July 14 awarded two individuals a total of $72 million for injuries caused by exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) produced by Monsanto Co. that were present in a Seattle-area school.
July 17, 2023
Glyphosate, PCBs Case Lacks ‘Scientifically Reliable’ Evidence, Monsanto Says

OAHU, Hawaii — Monsanto Co. has filed in Hawaii state court an answer denying all allegations in a lawsuit filed by a woman with cancer who says exposure to the herbicide Roundup and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), both of which Monsanto manufactures, is responsible for her injuries. Monsanto also asserts affirmative defenses in which it says the claims are barred for lack of “any scientifically reliable evidence that the products at issue were defective or unreasonably dangerous.”
July 17, 2023
EPA Says Nonprofit’s Ohio Train Derailment Case Fails Due To Sovereign Immunity

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has moved in an Ohio federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit organization that sued the agency and others for the alleged failure to properly respond to the East Palestine train derailment and the subsequent toxic chemical spill, arguing that the plaintiffs fail to identify a relevant waiver of the federal defendants’ sovereign immunity and that the “jurisdiction-stripping provision” of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) deprives the court of jurisdiction.
July 17, 2023
Firm Denies Jackson Water Crisis Claims, Asserts 46 Affirmative Defenses

JACKSON, Miss. — An engineering firm that has been sued by residents in Mississippi federal court alleging that it bears responsibility for the contaminated water crisis in Jackson, has filed an answer denying the claims against it and asserting 46 affirmative defenses that include the argument that the plaintiffs fail to state a claim and the lawsuit should be dismissed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).
July 14, 2023
PFAS Makers Say Plaintiff Is Unable To Meet Criteria For Class Certification

ROME, Ga. — The 3M Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and others, which are defendants in a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination lawsuit, have moved in Georgia federal court for leave to file supplemental joint opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, arguing that developments in a separate lawsuit, as well as actions taken by a municipal government related to the PFAS-related water charges that are the basis for the alleged injury in the case at hand, “exacerbate [the plaintiff’s] inability to satisfy” the criteria for class certification.