WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – An advocacy group wants its lawsuit over chemicals in Burt’s Bees lip balm sent back where it started.
Toxin Free USA is trying to establish itself as a private attorney general under Washington, D.C., law to sue Burt’s Bees and parent company Clorox. It is alleged a group of chemicals known as PFAS, which are present in firefighting foam and were used in products like non-stick cookware and waterproof clothing, are also in Burt’s Bees products.
PFAS lawsuits blame the chemicals for a variety of health problems, some of which were linked by a health study that was part of a settlement with DuPont. But others say the science on how PFAS affect the human body is incomplete.
Meanwhile, as the government still requires PFAS in its firefighting foam on military bases, lawyers pursue litigation like an Ohio class action that alleges no illnesses.
Toxin Free USA sued the defendants in April in D.C. Superior Court, but they removed it to federal court a month later. Toxin Free USA says its case makes only claims under D.C. law – not federal.
“Despite the lack of any damages or restitution at issue in this case, Defendants have removed on the basis of federal diversity jurisdiction, claiming that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000,” the group’s motion to remand says.
“Defendants make this assertion notwithstanding the settled law in this District. Defendants’ attempts to disregard this Court’s own rulings on the application of the long-established non-aggregation principle to this case, under which courts of this District hold that the cost of compliance with injunctive relief must be divided pro rata among potential beneficiaries of that relief, are unavailing.
“Defendants offer no evidence that the cost of compliance in this case would exceed $75,000 per member of the general public of the District and merely states that Plaintiff’s claim independently meets the jurisdictional threshold.”
Class action lawyers have also targeted Burt’s Bees, filing suit April 7 in Oakland, Calif., federal court.
PFAS lawsuits are centralized in South Carolina federal court in a multidistrict litigation proceeding, but a consumer class action might not be sent there because it does not allege personal injury.
It is also unclear whether, if it stays in federal court, Toxin Free USA’s private attorney general case would be included in the MDL.