Mass Torts & Toxic Torts

Groundwater & Air Emissions Contamination

• Lead trial counsel for an electric utility company in numerous lawsuits alleging personal injuries and property damages arising from alleged groundwater contamination and air emissions from the one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the country. Constituents of concern include hexavalent chromium, arsenic, uranium, radium, and radon.
• Defended a public power entity in mass tort litigation involving more than 150 plaintiffs who lived in the vicinity of the client’s coal-fired power plant and who asserted personal injuries and property damage allegedly caused by air emissions and groundwater contamination.
• Represented an aerospace and defense company in federal and state litigation involving alleged community exposure to contaminants released into the air and groundwater during 50 years of aircraft manufacture at the Burbank Skunk Works and related facilities. The cases settled for nominal amounts (less than plaintiff counsel’s hard costs).
• Defended a chemical manufacturer in litigation and associated government investigations following a chemical spill and release into a nearby creek that allegedly caused property damage to landowners.
• Represented a private utility in a class action related to allegedly contaminated drinking water.
• Defended a major defense contractor against 270 toxic tort claims based on historical rocket-testing and present-day groundwater contamination. Obtained a resolution and de minimis settlement after demonstration of fate and transport and statute of limitation issues.
• Represented a major aerospace client in toxic tort actions brought by more than 300 plaintiffs claiming exposure to contaminated drinking-water supplies. Through demurrers, motions to dismiss, and aggressive discovery, we reduced the plaintiff pool to fewer than 30 before settling the case on favorable terms.
• Represented a national manufacturer in three lawsuits filed in San Francisco Superior Court involving alleged perchloroethylene (PCE) contamination in the soil, sewer system, and drinking-water supplies in California. The plaintiffs collectively sought $150 million in damages. Based on our experts’ reports and testimony, we resolved the matter on very favorable terms for less than 1% of the damages sought.
• Lead counsel for a manufacturer of firefighting foam in litigation brought by a municipality in New York State over contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), alleging claims under RCRA, products liability, and other causes of action.
• Lead trial counsel for a leading specialty materials company defending against California municipal nuisance and strict liability claims in connection with soil and groundwater contaminated with PCE. Obtained a favorable jury verdict against claims brought by the City of Modesto. 
• Lead trial counsel for a leading medical products sterilization company against a public nuisance lawsuit brought by the New Mexico attorney general involving ethylene oxide emissions. Obtained a partial summary judgment on most of the attorney general’s claims (including the attorney general’s principal damages claims) and continuing to litigate the attorney general’s limited remaining claims. 
• Lead trial counsel for a global manufacturing company facing a class action arising from the historic placement of fill material in a residential neighborhood. The lawsuit was dismissed at the pleadings stage, and the plaintiffs’ attempts to amend the complaint were denied. The remaining claim under CERCLA was stayed pending completion of cleanup work.  
• Served on the trial team in an ecological toxic tort lawsuit against an aerospace and defense company involving more than 800 plaintiffs who claimed personal injuries and property damage from alleged exposure to chemicals in drinking water. The first group of 50 plaintiffs was litigated to a dismissal of all claims following the exclusion of the plaintiffs’ medical experts. The remaining cases were later settled on terms favorable to the client. 

Toxic Tort & Personal Injury Claims

• National counsel to one of the nation’s largest wireless phone service providers in litigation alleging adverse health effects from the use of wireless phones. Won motions to exclude the plaintiffs’ experts and dismiss the claims in a landmark Daubert win.
• Lead trial counsel for a leading medical products sterilization company defending against hundreds of personal injury and property devaluation claims in multiple jurisdictions related to its facility’s emissions of ethylene oxide.
• Lead trial counsel for a global chemical company defending against mass tort claims of personal injuries from exposure to toluene diisocyanate and other chemicals.
• Defended more than 1,000 personal injury claims in Birmingham, Alabama, and elsewhere related to alleged exposure to various isocyanate products in the coal mining industry.
• Resolved 900 plaintiff air contamination toxic tort cases for an oil refinery after obtaining dismissals of all but 78 plaintiffs.
• Representing a major pet foods technology company against personal injury and property damage claims allegedly related to the company’s agricultural waste disposal on a land applicator’s property.
• Defending a leading engineering and architectural firm against mass tort litigation brought by more than 400 plaintiffs stemming from an alleged historical contamination at a petroleum tank farm facility.
• Defended a national building products company in a mass tort action brought by more than 1,300 plaintiffs in nine lawsuits alleging personal injury claims caused by air and surface-water emissions from a former wood treatment site. The principal chemicals of concern were dioxin, arsenic, creosote, and chromium, which allegedly resulted in cancers, birth defects, and other diseases. We obtained a significant early victory with the removal of all the cases to federal court on fraudulent joinder grounds and settled all claims in a two-day mediation following the close of fact discovery for less than 10% of the plaintiffs’ pre-litigation demand.
• Counsel for a carbon black manufacturer against claims of personal injury and property damage based on alleged facility emissions.
• Lead trial counsel for a leading medical products sterilization company defending against 20 personal injury claims in Los Angeles related to its facility’s emissions of ethylene oxide.
• Represented an oil and gas partnership in toxic tort litigation arising from the companies’ historic operations of a petroleum storage terminal that allegedly caused cancer to a child residing in an adjacent mobile home park.

Environmental Class Actions

• Defended a multinational chemical corporation in a mass tort environmental class action filed on behalf of several thousand class members asserting personal injury and property damage claims allegedly caused by releases of a pesticide-related chemical from a wastewater treatment facility. After obtaining a dismissal of several claims and striking all the plaintiffs’ scientific experts, we negotiated a favorable settlement for a fraction of the plaintiffs’ original demands.
• Following the largest fish kill in Georgia history, represented the only industrial discharger on the river defending hundreds of property damage claims alleging ammonia, formaldehyde, and other chemical contamination. Our litigation strategy included removal of a putative class action to federal court, motions practice in a related Clean Water Act citizen’s suit brought by a local environmental organization, and settlements with the majority of claimants.
• Preparing defenses for a major manufacturer on a confidential basis against a putative class action for personal injury and property damage caused by alleged air emissions of dioxin, arsenic, and other metals dating back three decades. We have worked closely with the client in retaining national experts on dioxin and arsenic, as well as developing a community relations program to erode public support for the lawsuit.
• Served as lead Daubert counsel on behalf of a leading petrochemical corporation and a leading energy and defense corporation to challenge claims that exposure to natural uranium ore dust caused 18 different types of cancer among 53 plaintiffs in Texas. Our briefing and argument at the Daubert hearing resulted in the exclusion of the plaintiffs’ epidemiologist and summary judgment for the defendants.
• Formulated a unique strategy resulting in the removal of a putative class action of more than 5,000 personal injury and property damage claims for the alleged release of lead and other toxins to federal court and obtained an order from the Eleventh Circuit affirming removal in the first published court of appeals opinion to interpret the “local controversy” exception in the Class Action Fairness Act.

Daubert

• Uranium Exposure: Excluded the plaintiffs’ epidemiologist and obtained summary judgment in a case alleging cancer was caused by uranium exposure. Cano v. Everest Minerals Corp., et al., No. 5:01-cv-00610 (W.D. Tex.).
• Airborne Exposure: Excluded expert testimony that airborne nitrogen fertilizer caused skin cancer. Alvarez v. Sequoyah Fuels Corp., No. CJ-94-230, (Muskogee Cnty., Okla. Dist. Ct.).
• Cell Phones: Complete Daubert victory resulting in the exclusion of six experts who asserted that nonionizing radiation emitted by cell phones caused brain cancer. Newman v. Motorola Inc., 218 F. Supp. 2d. 769 (D. Md.), aff’d 78 Fed. Appx. 292 (4th Cir).
• Diesel Exhaust: Reversed admission of expert testimony that diesel exhaust caused cancer and rendered judgment for the defendants. Missouri Pacific RR Co. v. Navarro, 90 S.W.3d 747 (Tex. Ct. App.).
• Asbestos: 
  • Appellate counsel to a global chemical company in obtaining full affirmance of a Georgia trial court’s Daubert exclusion of the plaintiff’s expert claiming any level of exposure to asbestos was a cause of the plaintiff’s cancer. Butler v. Union Carbide Corp., 310 Ga. App. 21.
  • Obtained Daubert exclusion of experts’ opinions that short-fiber chrysotile asbestos can cause peritoneal mesothelioma. Fields v. Union Carbide Corp., No. 09-SC-0422 (Super. Ct. Cherokee Cnty., Ga.).