Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Toxic Torts

  • June 11, 2025

    Monsanto Appeals Denial Of Its Bid To Reduce $75M PCB Punitive Damages Award

    SEATTLE — Monsanto has filed a notice in Washington state court that it is appealing a state court judge’s denial of its motion to reduce a $75 million punitive damages award that was part of a combined verdict of $100 million for injuries from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) at a Seattle area school.  In addition to the trial court’s final judgment on the ruling, Monsanto is appealing other decisions, including rulings on its bid for a new trial.

  • June 11, 2025

    Government, PFAS Makers Are Liable For Tainted Drinking Water, Plaintiff Says

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — A water supplier on June 10 filed an amended complaint against the U.S. government and the makers of the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) in South Carolina federal court, contending that they are liable for water contamination from the use of AFFF at the Air Force’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Wash., which the plaintiff says released per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into local drinking water.

  • June 11, 2025

    Government Says Its Camp Lejeune Expert ‘Reliably’ Applied Scientific Principles

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. government has filed a response brief in North Carolina federal court arguing that it should deny the plaintiff leadership group’s (PLG) motion to exclude four opinions offered by one expert in the litigation pertaining to environmental and groundwater contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, arguing that the opinions in question “are the result of reliably applying foundational scientific principles and methodologies to sufficient facts and data” and contending that each of the PLG’s arguments favoring exclusion is “fundamentally flawed.”

  • June 10, 2025

    BASF Corp. Says PFAS Water Contamination Case Fails To Allege ‘Basic Facts’

    MADISON, Wis. — The BASF Corp. on June 9 filed a brief in Wisconsin federal court arguing that it should dismiss a fourth amended complaint in a lawsuit alleging groundwater contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on grounds that the plaintiffs fail to allege “even the most basic facts necessary to state a claim, much less to pursue one on behalf of a class.”

  • June 10, 2025

    Man: Court Should Nix Monsanto’s ‘Attempt At Sweeping Immunity’ In Roundup Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man who won a $1.25 million damages award against Monsanto Co. for injuries from exposure to the herbicide Roundup on June 9 filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court opposing Monsanto’s petition for review of the award, arguing that it should deny the petition because the failure-to-warn claim that led to the award imposed no labeling or packaging requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). “The petition presents one company’s attempt to avoid further tort claims. And no company is less deserving of such sweeping immunity than Monsanto,” the respondent argues.

  • June 06, 2025

    Judge Grants Partial Judgment To Oil Companies In MTBE Case

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on June 5 granted partial summary judgment to oil companies in a long-running case alleging groundwater contamination from the presence of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), ruling that Pennsylvania’s evidence related to two focus sites is “insufficient to support a finding of liability.”

  • June 06, 2025

    Groups Sue City, Companies For Untreated Wastewater Pollution Of Drinking Water

    ASHEBORO, N.C. — Environmental groups have sued a city and two businesses in North Carolina federal court contending that they are liable for contaminating groundwater with the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane by allowing untreated wastewater to make its way downstream into the drinking water supplies for other municipalities.

  • June 04, 2025

    6th Circuit Vacates, Remands Jurisdiction Decision In PFAS Coverage Suit

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a district court’s decision to retain jurisdiction over breach of contract and bad faith claims and to remand a declaratory judgment claim after determining that the lower court should have retained jurisdiction over all the claims in the insured’s suit seeking coverage for underlying perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS) exposure suits because all of the claims at issue present the same legal issues.

  • June 02, 2025

    Judge: Case Against Attorney General For Flint Water Crisis Prosecution Fails

    DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan on May 30 dismissed with prejudice a second amended complaint filed by former state official Richard L. Baird against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Assistant Attorney General and Solicitor Fadwa A. Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy related to their criminal prosecution of him in connection with the Flint water crisis, ruling that “since he did not suffer an underlying constitutional harm, Baird cannot proceed with a civil conspiracy claim.”

  • May 28, 2025

    COMMENTARY: Tennessee Passes First-Of-Its-Kind Law To Require “Sound Science” In Environmental Regulations

    By Mark A. Behrens and Joseph T. Zaleski

  • May 30, 2025

    Young Montana Residents Sue Trump, Federal Agencies For GHG Pollution Exposure

    BUTTE, Mont. — A group of 22 minors and young adults in a May 29 complaint asks a federal judge in Montana to rescind and declare unconstitutional a series of executive orders issued by President Donald J. Trump and his administration that include directives to increase fossil fuel production, alleging fossil fuel greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is “destroying the foundation of” their lives and infringing on their constitutional rights.

  • May 30, 2025

    Judge Refuses To Reduce $75M Punitives Award Against Monsanto In Seattle PCB Case

    SEATTLE — A state court judge in Washington has denied Monsanto Co.’s motion to reduce a $75 million punitive damages award that was part of a combined verdict of $100 million for injuries from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at a Seattle area school, ruling that Monsanto “unreasonably continued the conduct” that formed the basis of the jury’s punitive damages award, and an offset or credit for damages previously paid in other cases related to the same school “must be disallowed.” The judge also denied Monsanto’s motions for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial.

  • May 30, 2025

    4th Circuit Refuses En Banc Rehearing Of Decision Denying Remand Of AFFF Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a request for rehearing en banc sought by the states of Maryland and South Carolina related to a panel’s split decision to deny the states remand in their injury lawsuits against the 3M Co. related to exposure to the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF).

  • May 29, 2025

    Firm Files 8 Glyphosate Cancer Cases Against Monsanto Alleging ‘Wrongful Conduct’

    ST. LOUIS — One law firm filed eight separate lawsuits docketed May 28 in Missouri federal court against Monsanto Co. on behalf of plaintiffs who claim that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused them to develop cancer.  In one of the cases, Danielle Adeeb argues that Monsanto is liable for “negligent and wrongful conduct” because glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is “defective, dangerous to human health, unfit and unsuitable to be marketed and sold.”

  • May 29, 2025

    3M Says Federal Jurisdiction Applies To Alabama Town’s PFAS Water Pollution Case

    ATLANTA — The 3M Co. has filed a brief in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that a district court erred when it remanded to state court a case brought by a town in Alabama that has sued 3M for groundwater contamination allegedly from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF).  The  company contends that it plausibly alleges that at least some of the alleged contamination resulted from AFFF that was produced for the U.S. military pursuant to rigorous military specifications and, therefore, federal jurisdiction applies.

  • May 29, 2025

    Companies Seek High Court Ruling That State Jurisdiction Over Paraquat Cases Fails

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chemical companies have filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to hear their appeal of a ruling in a product liability case related to exposure to the pesticide paraquat.  The companies say the Supreme Court should rule that the commerce clause and the due process clause are violated when a defendant without substantial operations in a particular state is subject to lawsuits brought in that jurisdiction.

  • May 28, 2025

    Missouri Panel Affirms $549.9M Award Against Monsanto In Roundup Cancer Lawsuit

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An appellate court panel in Missouri ruled May 27 that a trial court did not commit evidentiary errors and that the $549.9 million in punitive damages, awarded by a jury for three plaintiffs who sued Monsanto Co. alleging that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused their cancers, is not excessive.

  • May 28, 2025

    Judge Hands Pennsylvania A Win On Assumption Of Risk Issue In MTBE Dispute

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has granted Pennsylvania partial summary judgment on affirmative defenses asserted by Exxon Mobil Corp. and its affiliates in a long-running case alleging groundwater contamination from the presence of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), ruling that the defendants cannot succeed at trial with their assumption of risk defense and that the fact that the state did not prohibit the use of MTBE in gasoline “does not mean that it assumed the risk of any outcome of that activity.”

  • May 27, 2025

    ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report Calls For ‘Enhanced Oversight’ Of Chemicals

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a report titled “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) that declares that “today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease” and lists multiple steps to be taken by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other unspecified government parties to conduct “regulatory reform and enhanced oversight” of numerous chemicals, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

  • May 22, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Complaint Alleging That Medication Contained Benzene As Preempted

    CHICAGO — A group of consumers who allege that over-the-counter medicine sold by Walgreens Inc. contained benzene have standing to sue, an Illinois federal judge found, but he agreed to dismiss the complaint after finding that federal law prohibited Walgreens from changing the drug’s label.

  • May 22, 2025

    Roundup Trial Begins With Differing Views On Science, Cancer And Monsanto’s Role

    ST. LOUIS — Attorneys in a glyphosate cancer trial against Monsanto Co. related to the herbicide Roundup on May 21 finished presenting opening arguments in Missouri state court, with the plaintiff’s counsel contending that Monsanto’s conduct in selling the product was “unacceptable and unreasonable,” and the company’s attorney arguing that “the evidence, the facts and the science prove that Roundup does not cause cancer.”

  • May 22, 2025

    Parties Voluntarily Dismiss Methane Case, Agree With EPA On Lack Of Liability

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Oil and Gas Association (MOGA) on May 21 voluntarily dismissed their methane waste emissions charge lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups in Michigan federal court, saying that in light of the fact that the EPA agrees “that no charge can lawfully be imposed or collected until it takes further, final action to implement the charge,” the chamber of commerce and the oil and gas association “understand that their members have not accrued, and will not accrue, liability” under the Clean Air Act (CAA).

  • May 20, 2025

    Government Balks At Bid To Compel Firm’s Billing Records For Work At Camp Lejeune

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. government on May 19 filed a brief opposing a motion to compel in North Carolina federal court arguing that it has produced all Camp Lejeune-related billing records sought by the Plaintiffs Leadership Group (PLG) related to work performed by an environmental and groundwater consulting firm before the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) was enacted and that “the burden and expense” of requiring the firm to look for additional billing records “far exceeds the benefit considering the extensive information that PLG has already received.”

  • May 20, 2025

    Herbicide Distributer: Glyphosate Cancer Claims Fail, Dismissal Warranted

    SAN FRANCISCO — A company that distributes herbicides on May 19 filed a reply brief in California federal court in support of its motion for summary judgment that it is not liable for a man’s cancer diagnosis from exposure to the herbicide Roundup because it did not sell Roundup to the utilities company that employed the plaintiff as a member of a crew that managed vegetation through the use of chemical pesticides.

  • May 19, 2025

    Coal Miner Insists RFK Jr.’s Cuts To NIOSH Black Lung Program Violate The Law

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two days after a federal judge in West Virginia issued an injunction enjoining the reduction in force (RIF) notice at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Respiratory Health Division in Morgantown, W.Va., a coal miner with black lung filed a brief arguing that the judge should deny a motion to dismiss his putative class action against Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., insisting that he has standing for his claim that Kennedy violated federal law when he terminated the majority of staff at the NIOSH office.