On October 5, 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill allowing public water suppliers to prosecute previously time-barred claims relating to emerging contaminants in their water supply wells. N.Y. CPLR 214-h...more
On January 22, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) issued a revised notice of proposed rulemaking establishing aggressive standards on the presence of three emerging contaminants in drinking water. The proposed...more
On November 4, 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a statute of limitations bill designed to make it easier for public water providers to file lawsuits relating to alleged contamination of their water supply...more
The Vermont State legislature has enacted a bill designed to set strict limits on the presence of perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) in drinking water....more
On December 18, the New York Drinking Water Quality Council recommended that the New York State Department of Health (DOH) adopt stringent new standards for the presence of three emerging contaminants in drinking water. The...more
DC High Court Adopts Daubert Approach to Expert Testimony -
In a direct victory for mobile phone manufacturers and service providers, and with implications for any other case involving expert testimony in the District of...more
12/12/2016
/ Admissibility ,
Contamination ,
Daubert Standards ,
Drinking Water ,
Evidence ,
Expert Testimony ,
Manufacturers ,
Mobile Devices ,
Preemption ,
Take-Home Exposure ,
Toxic Exposure
California Appellate Court Upholds “Every Exposure” Theory -
Deferring to the role of a jury in resolving questions of competing scientific theories, a California appeals court upheld a trial court’s ruling allowing...more
In a decision highlighting a practical challenge in pursuing tort claims against some underground storage tank (“UST”) owners and operators, the Michigan Court of Appeals held that a trial court could nix a lawsuit stemming...more
Underscoring the importance of pleading actual injury in a toxic tort class action, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed Oklahoma class claims that were based only on “reasonable concern” of future injury...more
Demonstrating the importance of expert causation evidence, a Pennsylvania appellate court refused a landowner’s request to reopen a case alleging chemicals from a natural gas drilling operation contaminated the landowner’s...more
An Ohio federal jury in October handed out the first verdict in multi-district litigation (“MDL”) against E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. related to ammonium perfluorooctanoate, or C-8, in drinking water around DuPont’s...more
In a ruling that underscores the difficulty of securing class certification in toxic tort cases involving fear of contamination claims, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a Missouri federal...more
In a ruling that further delineates the threshold for maintaining private nuisance and trespass claims in New Jersey, the state’s highest court held that defendant landowners were not liable for contamination to neighboring...more
In a case that tested a federal judge’s patience for inadequate pleadings, a Michigan federal court shut down a group of business owners’ repeated attempts to craft viable tort claims against an oil refinery in a...more
Underscoring the importance of sound science in expert opinions, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the exclusion of expert testimony that did not adequately draw or extrapolate from reliable...more
A West Virginia federal court certified a class for purposes of determining Defendants’ liability for a chemical spill that disrupted the water supply for approximately 300,000 residents in the Charleston area. Good v. Am....more
An Ohio federal district court gave E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. a partial victory in litigation over ammonium perfluorooctanoate (“C-8”) drinking water contamination in Ohio and West Virginia by granting partial summary...more
8/5/2015
/ Abnormally Dangerous Activities ,
Battery ,
Chemical Spills ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Contamination ,
Drinking Water ,
DuPont ,
Manufacturers ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Negligence Per Se ,
Pain and Suffering ,
Private Right of Action ,
Summary Judgment ,
Trespass ,
Wrongful Death
Creating a Circuit split, the Ninth Circuit held that a tort case against a Washington corporation did not fall under the so-called “local event” exception to the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”) and, therefore, had been...more
8/5/2015
/ CAFA ,
Chemicals ,
Contamination ,
Environmental Liability ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Local Event Exception ,
Manufacturers ,
Negligence ,
Remediation ,
Removal ,
Split of Authority
In an opinion that may help clarify the jurisdictional and pleading requirements for plaintiffs seeking damages and injunctive relief for alleged injuries from vapor intrusion, the federal district court in Minnesota denied a...more
MASS TOXIC TORTS -
West Virginia Chemical Spill Prompts Wave of Lawsuits -
The January 9th, 2014 chemical release at a Freedom Industries, Inc. facility in West Virginia has shown, yet again, that major...more
4/28/2014
/ Chemical Spills ,
Class Certification ,
Contamination ,
Damages ,
Drinking Water ,
Expert Testimony ,
Failure To Warn ,
Groundwater ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Medical Monitoring ,
Toxic Exposure