The Firm, led by Jason Booth as lead counsel for a joint defense group of more than 70 defendants, brought and argued motions challenging the sufficiency of a toxic tort complaint brought by more than 200 former employees of a Southern California plumbing supply company.  Significantly, while the Firm had won several prior victories in this case on similar grounds, the Court granted the motion without leave to amend, effectively ending the litigation.  The case was then dismissed by the Court and is pending appeal taken by the plaintiffs.  More specifically, the Firm served as Joint Defense Liaison Counsel for the entire defense group and drafted most of the moving papers over the case’s 3 -1/2 year history.  The Court granted the Firm’s motion challenging the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amended Complaint, holding that all the claims by all the plaintiffs were time barred (i.e. that the statute of limitations had expired).  The Court also ruled that the plaintiffs’ claims had not been pled with adequate specificity to identify which of the plaintiffs’ alleged illnesses were supposedly attributable to each defendant’s product(s). 

The plaintiffs appealed the trial court's judgment and filed an appeal.  Jason Booth of the Firm is again serving as lead counsel for the defense group and prepared the principal respondent’s brief.  Once the briefing process is completed, the matter will be heard by the appellate court.  We anticipate that the Court of Appeals will uphold the trial court's decision to dismiss the plaintiffs' claims.