WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - An advocacy group suing Burt's Bees over the presence of chemicals known as PFAS will be able to pursue their case in the court of its choosing.
District of Columbia federal judge Dabney Friedrich ruled Nov. 15 the lawsuit involves issues of D.C. law, sending it back to where Toxin Free USA's first filed it - D.C. Superior Court. Friedrich rejected the effort of Burt's Bees and Clorox to establish federal jurisdiction.
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.
Litigation against Clorox, which bought Burt's Bees 15 years ago, says the products purport to be 100% natural but have been found to have amounts of PFAS in them.
Toxin Free brought suit under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act and seeks an injunction, not compensation. The defendants argued the injunction would exceed the value of $75,000 - a threshold for federal jurisdiction.
"Here, the defendants have not shown that, if divided among D.C. consumers, the cost of complying with Toxin Free's requested injunctive relief would exceed $75,000," Friedrich wrote.
"They argue that the aggregate cost of complying with Toxin Free's requested relief would be approximately $600,000, but make no effort to explain how that would exceed $75,000 per consumer when apportioned."
The defendants can't add the cost of attorneys fees to the amount in question either, the judge wrote.
"Simply listing previous fee awards and billing rates from 2017 for the plaintiff's counsel is not enough to establish the amount in controversy," the order says.