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Oct 13, 2014

Federal Appellate Court Decision In Groundwater Contamination Case

On October 6, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which is the appellate court for federal district courts in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, issued a decision in the case of Joseph Adinolfe et al. v. United Technologies Corporation, a toxic tort case in which hundreds of property owners in a residential area of Palm Beach County, Florida sued an aerospace company for damages resulting from purported groundwater contamination. In the case, the plaintiffs alleged that one plaintiff had developed cancer as a result of exposure to contamination in drinking water wells and that the remaining plaintiffs… Read more


Jun 13, 2013

Federal Appeals Court Finds Expert Testimony Improperly Excluded in Toxic Tort Suit

Dealing a major setback to defendants in a toxic chemical exposure lawsuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that the testimony of three expert witnesses for the plaintiffs was improperly excluded and that summary judgment for defendants was improperly granted.  (Whitlock v. Pepsi Americas, 9th Cir., No. 11-16958, 5/16/2013) In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently addressed whether plaintiffs’ three experts, a chemist, a toxicologist and a physician, offered exposure and causation testimony to support the plaintiffs’ injury claims which was sufficiently reliable under federal evidence rules.  The claims at issue… Read more


Sep 20, 2010

SGR Obtains Dismissal of Toxic Tort Lawsuit, Victory for Client

Last Friday, SGR environmental attorneys Andy Thompson and Steve O’Day achieved victory for SGR’s client, Alcoa, in a large toxic tort lawsuit. The case was first filed in 2004 and after defeating the plaintiffs’ efforts at class certification, the case was limited to twelve plaintiffs alleging that they developed beryllium sensitization and chronic beryllium disease as a result of alleged exposures during the manufacture of military aircraft at Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Georgia. Plaintiffs offered the testimony of an industrial hygienist to attempt to establish causation and exposure to the defendants’ products. SGR moved to exclude the testimony of the… Read more