Insights

Washington – June 1, 2017: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce the arrival of partners Richard E. (Rick) Wallace Jr. and Peter C. (Pete) Condron to the firm's Mass Tort, Product, and Consumer Litigation Group. Wallace and Condron are recognized trial lawyers in commercial, toxic tort, product liability, and environmental matters, and they are among the foremost litigators handling high-exposure environmental litigation brought by state attorneys general, municipalities, consumer advocates, and plaintiffs. Their arrival strengthens Crowell & Moring’s capabilities to defend clients in product liability and environmental litigation in courts across the United States.

Plastic pollution is a growing concern worldwide, and State Attorneys General increasingly turn to litigation to address this issue. These lawsuits tend to focus on alleged deceptive advertising and misleading statements, but sometimes include public nuisance claims to address alleged injuries to the environment and public health. Broadly, the actions of State Attorneys General target companies directly for the products they sell and the claims they make to sell them, de-emphasizing consumer choice as a driver of these harms.

Reaffirming its landmark decision in Parker v. Mobil Oil Corp.,[1] New York’s highest court last week overturned a $16.5 million jury verdict for the husband of a woman who had died from peritoneal mesothelioma allegedly caused by a decade of daily exposure to asbestos-contaminated talcum powder. [2] The ruling is the latest in a series by the Court of Appeals requiring toxic tort plaintiffs to prove exposure “to sufficient levels of the toxin to cause the illness.”[3] The Court used the case to reiterate that conclusory assertions of causation, or qualitative terms such as “excessive,” are insufficient to meet the Parker causation standard. 

This month, pharmaceutical companies won significant victories in California and Oklahoma state courts in their ongoing battle with plaintiffs seeking to hold them responsible for the nation’s “opioid overdose epidemic” — an epidemic, as described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that has spawned thousands of lawsuits filed by states and localities across the country.

Last month the U.S. EPA hosted simultaneous press conferences in every EPA Region to roll out an Action Plan for addressing growing public concern and potential human health risks posed by polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment and household products. As part of the Action Plan, EPA set a goal of proposing drinking water maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for two PFAS constituents, PFOA and PFOS, by the end of 2019. U.S. EPA’s widely publicized announcement signaled that EPA has elevated its priority for addressing the PFAS problem, and highlights the public and political pressure facing EPA to take action. While the federal regulatory process will still require years, EPA announced real-time initiatives to give communities and state regulators more insight into where PFAS may be an issue.