PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Legal Newsline) – A class action lawsuit over toothpaste containing activated charcoal is too ambitious, lawyers for the defendant are alleging.
They say in a Feb. 3 motion to dismiss that one plaintiff, a Rhode Island resident, can’t make claims under every states’ consumer protection laws, in their defense of Pro Teeth Whitening. They also say fraud claims aren’t sufficiently pled and should be thrown out.
“Plaintiff’s complaint should be dismissed for impermissibly lumping various state law claims within single counts of the complaint in violation of Rule 10(b),” Sheridan King of Shipman & Goodwin wrote.
Rule 10(b) says claims or defenses must be stated in numbered paragraphs, limited as far as practicable to a single set of circumstances.
“Plaintiff instead alleges violations of the laws of all fifty states, but cites no applicable statutes or authority from any state other than Rhode Island, making it impossible for Pro Teeth to respond,” King wrote.
“More specifically, each count of Plaintiff's Complaint is pled to include statutory, equitable, or common-law tort theories of recovery for the laws of all fifty states without citation to the laws of any other state.”
Pro Teeth Whitening manufactures a line of dental products containing activated charcoal. Claims that the products are safe on enamel, freshen breath and brighten discoloration can’t be verified, the suit says.
“Pro Teeth did not (and does not) possess the requisite evidence to substantiate its claims concerning the benefits and safety of its charcoal dentifrices, as such evidence did not exist at the times it made its claims,” the lawsuit says.
“Nor does it currently exist.”
The lawsuit points to dental journal articles that found no evidence charcoal helps mouths, with one worrying that it is a “marketing gimmick.”
Oklahoma City firm Federman & Sherwood is pursuing the case, along with Hultquist Law of Providence.