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Mealey's Toxic Torts

  • September 10, 2025

    Judge Approves Nearly $600,000 In Damages For Jet Fuel Spill At Hawaii Naval Base

    HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii on Sept. 9 entered judgment for 17 bellwether plaintiffs in a lawsuit over groundwater contamination from a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, awarding a total of $598,633.15 in damages and ruling that there is “no just reason for delay” for the entry of a final judgment.

  • September 10, 2025

    Putative Class Plaintiffs Say PFAS Case Against Band-Aid Makers Is Well-Founded

    TRENTON, N.J. — Plaintiffs who filed a putative class action against Johnson & Johnson and affiliates alleging that they have been injured by the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Band-Aids have filed a brief in New Jersey federal court arguing that the defendants’ motion to dismiss “fails on every front, applying incorrect legal standards and ignoring well-pleaded factual allegations.”

  • September 10, 2025

    MAHA Strategy Calls For Sweeping Federal Initiatives And Agency Reorganization

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission on Sept. 9 released a report outlining its strategy to enact multiple sweeping initiatives to be launched by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and others, while also calling for the “comprehensive reorganization” of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create the Administration for a Healthy America, which the MAHA Commission calls “a new agency structure specifically designed to coordinate and lead the Federal government’s response to the chronic disease crisis through integrated prevention-focused programs and streamlined accountability for related programs.”

  • September 09, 2025

    Government Seeks To Hold In Abeyance Any CERCLA Claims Asserted In AFFF Litigation

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — The U.S. government on Sept. 8 moved in South Carolina federal court to hold in abeyance claims against the government that seek cost recovery and contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in multidistrict litigation pertaining to water contamination from the use of the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). The motion was filed in the docket of a case brought by the Lakewood Water District, but the document indicates that the government intends the abeyance to apply to all MDL cases in which the government is a defendant.

  • September 09, 2025

    Nuisance Suit Against Exxon For Plastics Pollution May Proceed, Judge Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted Exxon Mobil Corp.’s motion to dismiss claims by environmental groups that it violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by manufacturing single-use plastics that it allegedly misrepresented as recyclable while earning billions of dollars from sales but denied the motion as to the plaintiffs’ public nuisance claims.

  • September 09, 2025

    Firefighters Say They Have Established Injury Claims Against Makers Of PFAS

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Firefighters and other plaintiffs filed a brief in Connecticut federal court arguing that they have established injury-in-fact, traceability and fraudulent concealment against the 3M Co. and others, so their lawsuit alleging that they have been poisoned by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in protective coating in firefighting gear should not be dismissed. The plaintiffs also filed a brief in support of a motion for jurisdictional discovery.

  • September 09, 2025

    New York Attorney General, Landlords Reach $515,000 Settlement In Lead Case

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Letitia James has reached a $515,000 settlement with landlords in Buffalo, N.Y., that funds lead hazard remediation and creates a relief fund for tenants poisoned by lead paint. The consent order and judgment was entered in New York state court.

  • September 09, 2025

    Silica Exclusions Bar Coverage For Silica Exposure Lawsuits, Insurers Say

    LOS ANGELES — No coverage is afforded to Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. for more than 100 bodily injury lawsuits seeking damages as a result of silica exposure from countertops sold and marketed by Home Depot because the retailer is not an additional insured under policies issued to the countertop manufacturer and because the policies’ exclusions for silica and pollution bar coverage, insurers maintain in a complaint filed in California federal court.

  • September 08, 2025

    Plaintiffs Seek Final Judgment Approving Nearly $600,000 Award For Jet Fuel Spill

    HONOLULU — The bellwether plaintiffs in a lawsuit over groundwater contamination from a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base filed a brief in Hawaii federal court on Sept. 5 seeking entry of final judgment following the presiding judge’s issuance of findings of fact and conclusions of law in which she determined that the U.S. government is liable for a total of $598,633.15 in damages.

  • September 05, 2025

    Phthalate Exposure Linked To Breast Cancer, Study Finds

    MIAMI —  Researchers are publishing a report in a scientific journal about environmental health which concludes that there is emerging evidence that links exposure to phthalates — chemicals found in plastics, cosmetics and food packaging — to “the initiation, progression, and metastasis of breast cancer.”

  • September 03, 2025

    Oil Company Seeks Review Of Ruling That Nullified Its Right To Drill

    SAN FRANCISCO — An oil company on Sept. 2 filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that it should review a lower court’s dismissal of the company’s claim for inverse condemnation in a dispute over a default judgment that nullified the company’s zoning clearance to conduct drilling operations because to challenge the lower court’s dismissal of its claims, the oil company had to wait until the district court entered a final judgment.

  • August 29, 2025

    3M Asks 11th Circuit To Reverse Remand Ruling In PFAS Pollution Case

    ATLANTA — The 3M Co. has filed a reply brief in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that an Alabama municipality’s lawsuit for groundwater contamination allegedly from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) belongs in federal court because 3M has made “plausible removal allegations” that any PFAS contamination cannot be “disentangled” from PFAS that was made according to federal specifications.

  • August 29, 2025

    6th Circuit Stays Mandate In Water Pollution Case Pending Supreme Court Petition

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel has issued an order staying the mandate in a contentious groundwater contamination lawsuit against federal agencies and Michigan state agencies related to lead pollution in drinking water in the city of Benton Harbor to allow the city time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 28, 2025

    State Agency Sues Mobile Home Park For Violations Related To Tainted Groundwater

    CENTENNIAL, Colo. — A Colorado state agency on Aug. 27 sued a mobile home park in state court for violating state law because the drinking water in the park is contaminated with total coliform bacteria, which indicates that other, potentially harmful waterborne pathogens — such as E. coli — may be present in the water.

  • August 28, 2025

    Judge: Groundwater Plaintiffs’ Motion For Judgment, New Trial Lacks Merit

    ALEXANDRIA, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana has denied bellwether plaintiffs’ motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) or a new trial in a groundwater contamination lawsuit, ruling that there is no merit to their argument that they are being denied due process because they did not have the benefit of a fully developed evidentiary record when presenting their claims.

  • August 27, 2025

    Attorneys File Multiple Cases Against Monsanto Alleging Cancer From Roundup

    ST. LOUIS — Attorneys filed five complaints against Monsanto Co. in Missouri federal court on Aug. 26, alleging in each one that the plaintiff has developed a specific type of cancer as a result of exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, and that Monsanto has fraudulently concealed the dangers associated with Roundup. In one complaint, which is indicative of the others, plaintiff James Crank says Roundup is “defective, dangerous to human health, unfit and unsuitable to be marketed and sold in commerce.”

  • August 27, 2025

    150 Plaintiffs Sue PFAS Makers Alleging Wrongful Death, Other Injuries From PFAS

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — One hundred and fifty plaintiffs filed a joint short-form complaint in South Carolina federal court on Aug. 26, arguing that E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 3M Co. and others are liable for a variety of injuries stemming from exposure to the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

  • August 20, 2025

    COMMENTARY: A Survey Of State Laws Regulating Third-Party Litigation Funding

    By Mark A. Behrens and Christopher E. Appel

  • August 25, 2025

    PFAS Defendant: Plaintiffs’ Jurisdictional Discovery Request Is ‘Irrelevant’

    BOSTON — A company that is one of several defendants in a consolidated class action for drinking water contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on Aug. 22 filed a brief in opposition in a Massachusetts federal court arguing that the plaintiffs’ jurisdictional discovery motion is “irrelevant and moot.”

  • August 25, 2025

    2 Alabama Municipalities Say 3M Fails To Meet Its Burden For Removal Of AFFF Cases

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two municipalities in Alabama that are suing the 3M Co. and other makers of the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), on Aug. 22 filed a reply brief in South Carolina federal court arguing that remand of their lawsuit is proper because 3M has failed to meet its burden for removal.

  • August 25, 2025

    EPA Says Mandamus Relief Is Not Warranted In Case About Organophosphates

    SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has filed an answer to a petition for writ of mandamus in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that it has not unreasonably delayed action in responding to a 2021 administrative petition filed by environmental groups that seek food tolerance revocations and pesticide registration cancellations for 15 organophosphates.  The EPA contends that the groups have not shown that they are entitled to the extraordinary remedy of a writ of mandamus.

  • August 21, 2025

    Judgment, New Trial Needed In Louisiana Groundwater Case, Plaintiffs Say

    ALEXANDRIA, La. — Bellwether plaintiffs in a groundwater contamination lawsuit have filed a reply brief in Louisiana federal court seeking a judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) or a new trial, contending that the defendant is using the Louisiana Groundwater Act as “both a procedural shield and substantive sword,” and they say that “this blatant contradiction cannot stand.”

  • August 21, 2025

    County: Oil Company’s Appeal Must Be Nixed In Permit Row Involving Local Aquifers

    LOS ANGELES — A county government in California on Aug. 20 filed a motion to dismiss an appeal in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that an oil company that is challenging a default judgment against it that nullified the company’s zoning clearance to conduct drilling operations failed to file an appropriate motion in the lower court to set aside the default judgment in a dispute that involves contamination of local aquifers.

  • August 21, 2025

    Split 4th Circuit Reverses, Says Plaintiff Has Standing In EtO Injury Lawsuit

    RICHMOND, Va. — A split panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court’s ruling that granted summary judgment on standing to Union Carbide Corp. and its affiliate in a lawsuit alleging exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO), ruling that the plaintiffs properly allege elements of West Virginia’s medical monitoring tort and therefore have Article III standing. The majority also said that “none of the reasons for which the district court excluded” the plaintiffs’ expert was proper.

  • August 20, 2025

    Judge: Insured Met Burden Of Showing Pollution Exclusion Does Not Bar Coverage

    ALBANY, N.Y. — An insured municipality met its burden of showing its insurers owe a duty to defend it against an environmental contamination claim, a New York federal judge said after determining that there is a “reasonable possibility” that the contamination at issue was caused by a fire or an emergency, which are exceptions to the policies’ pollution exclusion.