Litigation-PFAS

Litigation

1st Circuit Weighs Upholding Class Certification In PFAS Deposition Case

Judges on a 1st Circuit panel appear to support a lower court’s partial certification of a PFAS property damages case, grilling counsel for a plastics manufacturer on his argument that the liability claims are individual, rather than common, across the class while pondering how to address the lawsuit’s damages claims, which were not certified. "We're talking past each other here," Judge Lara Montecalvo told the attorney for Saint-Gobain during a discussion on whether the trespass claim should have been certified...

Georgia Plaintiffs Seek To Consolidate PFAS Suits Amid Judge’s Doubts

Georgia citizens and environmentalists are urging a federal district court to consolidate their respective PFAS contamination suits against utility and industry defendants, arguing that their cases are largely similar and consolidation would save judicial resources, but the judge has previously signaled her skepticism at such efforts. The pair of suits , pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, test whether the Superfund law or the Clean Water Act (CWA) should govern the cleanup of land...

Order

Plaintiffs’ Motion To Consolidate Related Actions

Defendants’ Joint Response In Opposition To Plaintiffs’ Motion To Consolidate


Judge Pauses CERCLA Cost Recovery Cases In AFFF MDL, Citing Shutdown

The judge overseeing multidistrict litigation (MDL) governing PFAS firefighting foam contamination has granted the United States’ request to stay 22 Superfund cases brought against it by local governments until the federal shutdown ends and the Justice Department’s (DOJ) funding is resumed. Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina Oct. 31 granted a motion by the U.S. government to stay action in the cases due to the lapse in funding for DOJ that began...

Michigan Airport Makes Second Bid To Move PFAS Suit To Federal Court

A Michigan airport is again urging a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court ruling and allow Michigan’s landmark enforcement case seeking cleanup from a commercial airport for PFAS releases to go forward in federal rather than state court, an issue the Supreme Court is also weighing in a separate suit. The Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority (GFIAA) late last month asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to consider whether it meets requirements under...

3M Loses Bid To Appeal Ruling Remanding Texas’ PFAS Suit To State Court

The 5th Circuit has rejected a request from 3M for permission to appeal a district court decision that remanded to state court Texas’ suit alleging the company misrepresented the safety of its PFAS-containing products, denying 3M the opportunity to argue that the case falls under federal jurisdiction by the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) of 2005. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Oct. 28 ordered that 3M’s motion for leave to appeal the ruling from the...

Group Disputes Chemours’ Charge Of Broad Impact From PFAS Injunction

Environmentalists are urging the 4th Circuit to preserve a lower court injunction that requires chemical manufacturer Chemours to comply with its PFAS permit limits when discharging into the Ohio River, pushing back on the defendants’ argument that the Clean Water Act (CWA) allows plaintiffs to obtain injunctive relief automatically for every violation. “Chemours insists that the district court improperly assumed that a CWA permit violation automatically establishes sufficient harm for standing,” West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) says in an Oct...

States Ask High Court To Review Venue For PFAS Contamination Suits

Maryland and South Carolina are urging the Supreme Court to review and reverse an appellate ruling that backed 3M’s bid to remove their PFAS suits from state to federal court, charging that the appellate court broadened what qualifies as a federally directed action and failed to credit the states’ disclaimers that they would not recover for PFAS from firefighting foam. The case, if reviewed by the Supreme Court, is likely to impact a host of other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances...

3M Again Seeks To Remove Illinois PFAS Cleanup Litigation To U.S. Court

3M is once again seeking to move to federal court Illinois’ suit that targets the company’s PFAS contamination from a specific facility, arguing the state violated its concession to an appeals court that it would not seek relief for contamination related to aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF). “In an about-face, the State now admits that it seeks to recover at sites near the Cordova Facility with PFAS contamination stemming from multiple sources, including in places that are also plausibly contaminated with...

Local Officials Resist U.S. Push To Stay MDL Review Of CERCLA Claims

Local governments and the state of New Mexico are resisting Justice Department (DOJ) efforts to stay consideration of Superfund cost claims against the federal government for remediating PFAS from firefighting foam in multidistrict litigation (MDL), testing plaintiffs’ ability to rely on the Superfund law in pursuing timely cleanups. In an Oct. 23 brief filed in the MDL, nearly two dozen plaintiffs with claims for cost recovery or contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA) oppose the...

Bankruptcy Judge Narrows Order Requiring KFI To Detail AFFF Claims

A federal bankruptcy judge is ordering Kidde Fenwal Inc. (KFI), a former seller of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing PFAS, to delineate which claims in multidistrict litigation (MDL) filed by several states will be released under a bankruptcy plan, paring back an earlier order after KFI balked at mandates to detail all claims filed. In an Oct. 16 ruling from the bench, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware told KFI to provide...

Court Rejects Stay, Finds 3M Unlikely To Succeed In Texas PFAS Case Appeal

A federal district court has rejected 3M’s emergency bid to stay the court’s remand of a Texas PFAS suit to state court pending an appeal, with the federal court finding that 3M is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its appeal argument that the case should be classified as a class action under federal jurisdiction. At the same time, the case was given a 30-day automatic stay that is due to end Oct. 24. At issue in the case...

Parties Settle Novel Prop. 65 Suit Against Chrome Platers’ PFAS Discharges

Environmentalists are settling their novel Proposition 65 lawsuit that alleges two chrome-plating firms unlawfully discharged PFAS into drinking water sources, settlements that rely on the law’s rarely used prohibition on unlawful discharges to win soon-to-be-released agreements. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) “will be settling with Teikuro Corp. in the next few weeks and mediating with Electro-Coatings of California later this month,” according to an attorney representing environmentalists. “I can’t disclose yet, but hopefully we’ll have a signed agreement with...

Bankruptcy Court Doubts Kidde’s Failure To Disclose List Of AFFF Claims

A federal bankruptcy court judge is raising doubt that a seller of firefighting foam has provided the detail she requested on the multitude of PFAS-related claims to be settled under a proposed bankruptcy plan, questioning claims by the bankrupt Kidde Fenwal Inc. (KFI) that it was “impossible and unnecessary” to obtain a breakdown of those claims. During an Oct. 6 hearing, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware told an attorney for debtor...

Oct. 1 Disclosure Statement

June 16 Order


3M Tests CAFA’s Reach In Bid To Remove Texas’ PFAS Suit To U.S. Court

3M is urging the 5th Circuit to allow it to appeal a lower court ruling that remanded to state court Texas’ litigation alleging 3M and DuPont misrepresented the safety of their PFAS-containing consumer products, in a potentially precedent-setting case that tests the jurisdiction of the federal Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) of 2005. The company and the state are battling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit over whether the state’s suit against 3M and other per-...

POTWs Fear New Jersey PFAS Deals Curb Recoveries, Undercut Authorities

Wastewater and other local agencies are raising concerns over New Jersey’s landmark proposed PFAS cleanup settlements with major chemical manufacturers, urging state regulators to reconsider the deals’ broad liability waiver that they say prevents them from recouping adequate funds and undercuts their pre-treatment and other enforcement powers. “Simply stated, the proposed [judicial consent orders (JCO)] would grant 3M an essentially unquantifiable amount of PFAS liability protection[] without demanding nearly enough money in return to address the water contamination caused by...

NACWA’s Comments

Local Authorities’ Letter

Scheduling Order

Status Report

Sen. Bucco’s Comments


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