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Mealey's Toxic Torts

  • 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.

  • November 12, 2025

    Judge Affirms Prior Ruling, Says State’s Failure-To-Warn Claim In MTBE Case Fails

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has granted a motion by gasoline companies to apply a prior summary judgment ruling to Pennsylvania’s claim for failure to warn in a long-running water contamination lawsuit related to methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), holding that the failure-to-warn claim cannot proceed because the state offered no evidence that a failure to warn was a substantial cause of the contamination at issue.

  • November 12, 2025

    Jurisdiction Lacking In PFAS Water Pollution Case, Defendant Says

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A defendant in a lawsuit seeking to recover the costs associated with removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have tainted local sources of drinking water under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act has filed a motion in West Virginia federal court arguing that the case should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the plaintiff fails to allege that the defendant has sufficient contact with West Virginia.

  • November 12, 2025

    7 Minor Bellwether Plaintiffs Appeal $598,633 Award In Water Contamination Case

    HONOLULU — Seven of the bellwether plaintiffs in a lawsuit over groundwater contamination from a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base have filed a notice in Hawaii federal indicating that they are appealing a $598,633.15 damages judgment won by all 17 bellwether plaintiffs to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The appellants, all minors, did not articulate the specifics of their appeal.

  • November 11, 2025

    Group Says Government’s Bid To Nix DCE Claims In Camp Lejeune Case Is ‘Improper’

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group (PLG) in the Camp Lejeune water crisis multidistrict litigation in North Carolina federal court on Nov. 10 filed a brief arguing that the U.S. government’s motion seeking summary judgment dismissal on all claims alleging that dichloroethylene (DCE) caused any of the Track 1 diseases is “improper.” The PLG argues that the government’s motion is “scientifically untenable” because “it is a scientific fact that DCE was present in the Camp Lejeune water that Plaintiffs drank.”

  • November 11, 2025

    Class Suit Says UPS, GE And Boeing’s Recklessness Caused November Plane Crash

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Recklessness by United Parcel Service Inc., General Electric Co. and Boeing Co. caused the Nov. 4 crash of a UPS MD-11 cargo aircraft as it attempted to depart a Louisville airport for Hawaii, airport neighbors allege in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in Kentucky.

  • November 11, 2025

    Group: Court Should Deny Dismissal Of Consortium Claim In Camp Lejeune Case

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group (PLG) in the Camp Lejeune water crisis multidistrict litigation filed a brief in North Carolina federal court on Nov. 11 arguing that it should deny the U.S. government’s partial motion to dismiss a woman’s loss of consortium claim related to her husband’s claim for Parkinson’s disease related to exposure to the contaminated water at the military base.  The PLG says “any other outcome would be a miscarriage of justice.”