Over the last several weeks, plaintiffs’ firms have filed several complaints in the consumer product and toxic tort areas:

• Plaintiff Marisol Baez recently filed a proposed class action complaint in the Eastern District of New York against The Clorox Company and The Burt’s Bees Products Company claiming that several mascara and lip gloss products contain PFAS based on testing performed by Mamavation and released in May of this year. Like other similar complaints, plaintiff is seeking monetary compensation based on breaches of express and implied warranties, fraudulent concealment, and unjust enrichment.
• Plaintiff Candace Seidl recently filed a proposed class action complaint in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Chicco USA, Inc. alleging that certain children’s car seats contain fabrics containing PFAS according to testing performed by The Ecology Center and released in April of this year (and covered in this newsletter). As with most other similar complaints, plaintiff is seeking monetary compensation based on breaches of express and implied warranties, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, and violations of consumer protection acts.
• Plaintiffs Stephen, Elizabeth, and William Sutton filed a complaint in the District of Maryland related to Dr. Stephen Sutton’s prior employment at a WL Gore facility in Elkton, Maryland. The plaintiffs allege that rheologist Dr. Stephen Sutton worked at the WL Gore facility and lived with his family less than one mile away. The complaint claims that the family members developed a variety of different health effects including cancers allegedly as a result of exposure to PFAS chemicals PFOA and APFO both at the facility and through drinking water allegedly contaminated by the facility’s use of those materials. The plaintiffs seek compensatory damages, punitive damages, costs for medical monitoring, costs for air testing, and remediation costs for property at issue.
• Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul, at the request of Governor Anthony Evers, filed a complaint against nearly twenty companies for alleged PFAS contamination of water, air, and sediment within the state. The complaint alleges that the alleged contamination will require “billions” of state taxpayer dollars to remediate the PFAS contamination, which the state will seek to recover from the companies sued in this complaint. In addition, Attorney General Kaul seeks to impose punitive damages on the defendant companies.

The authors will stay on the lookout for additional filings as PFAS litigation activity continues to increase.