CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - The maker of children's school uniforms has defeated a proposed class action lawsuit over the alleged presence of chemicals known as PFAS.
Chicago federal judge Matthew Kennelly on April 1 granted a motion to dismiss by defendant The Children's Place, which had moved unsuccessfully to punish plaintiff lawyers for bringing the case at all.
Kennelly's ruling found the plaintiffs failed to state a claim for relief and gives them until April 23 to ask to file an amended complaint.
"The plaintiffs allege that they viewed TCP's advertisements, its retail website, and the tags on the school uniform products that they purchased," Kennelly wrote.
"But they do not contend that these sources contained any false statements. In other words, the plaintiffs have not alleged that TCP's advertisements, retail website or clothing tags affirmatively stated that its school uniform products were PFAS-free."
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 like the ones at issue in the TCP case.
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.
Kennelly rejected that motion but not the company's dismissal request.
"(I)t is not plausible that a reasonable consumer would interpret TCP's silence on the issue of PFAS to indicate that its school uniforms were 100% PFAS-free," he wrote.
"The fact that TCP could have provided 'more detailed' or 'more specific' information regarding the chemicals in its products is insufficient, without more, to state an (Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act) deception claim for omission of a material fact."