CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge won't punish lawyers accused of ignoring the results of chemical testing when suing the maker of children's school uniforms.
Chicago judge Matthew Kennelly denied the request of defendant The Children's Place on Nov. 17. The company faces a proposed class action lawsuit over chemicals known as PFAS, referred to as "forever chemicals" because of the human body's inability to rid itself of them.
PFAS are found in firefighting foam and consumer products and have made their way into the bloodstreams of virtually every American. 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.
Lawyers have jumped on the chance to sue dozens of companies, with some scoring contingency-fee contracts with government officials and others pursuing consumer protection claims.
In October, TCP filed a motion for sanctions against plaintiff Angala Garland and her lawyers at Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz and Bradley/Grombacher.
The motion by Children's Place says the complaint against it was based on testing of only two of 21 garments purchased by the plaintiff. Test results showed that one of them was PFAS-free and the other showed extremely low, trace levels of one member of the PFAS family.
That result was flagged with two indicators the test was unreliable, Children's Place said.
Both garments had been worn and washed for once. Many water districts have sued companies like DuPont and 3M for PFAS in water.
"One can fairly challenge the reasonableness of an inference drawn from a single test result on a single clothing item with respect to the entirety of TCP's school clothing product line," Judge Kennelly wrote.
"But the Court is not prepared to say that the filing of the complaint was objectively unreasonable. The single test result was positive at least for one PFAS chemical, and the contention that TCP's products contained PFAS was also supported by the Sierra Club information that Garland's counsel had reviewed."
The class action lawyers have since tested unworn and unwashed uniforms and say 10 items tested positive for PFAS substances and/or total fluorine.