CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) — A mother has filed a class action lawsuit against The Children's Place over their school uniforms allegedly containing harmful chemicals.
Angala Garland, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a complaint July 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against The Children's Place Inc., alleging violation of Illinois' Consumer Fraud Act and Deceptive Business Practices Act and other claims.
Garland, according to her class action, purchased school uniforms for her son online from The Children's Place in 2022. She claims that when purchasing the uniforms, she never saw any disclosures or warnings about the clothes containing polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Garland further claims that young children who wear the defendant's uniforms are vulnerable to the health effects of the PFAS due to their body weight, development, prolonged periods of wearing the clothes and their hand-to-mouth behaviors, which give oral exposure to the harmful chemicals.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed regulations for PFAS despite pushback from critics who say the chemicals' exact health effects on the human body are still unknown.
She alleges The Children's Place knowingly and willfully concealed the unsafe nature of its school uniforms, which independent testing showed to have above-trace amounts of PFAS. Garland also claims the defendant falsely touts the safety of its clothing as well as the company's "chemical testing protocols."
Garland and the class seek monetary relief, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. They are represented by E. Samuel Geisler, Bryan Aylstock and D. Nicole Guntner of Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz in Pensacola, Fla., Marcus Bradely, Kiley Grombacher and Robert Fisher of Bradley/Grombacher LLP in Westlake Village, Calif..
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois - Eastern Division case number 1:23-CV-04899