Mass Torts and Product Liability Litigation — Recent Engagements

Personal Injury Defense Litigation

Orrick litigators have won national acclaim for their work in personal injury defense litigation for clients.

• American Cyanamid Company
  Orrick represented American Cyanamid in State of Rhode Island v. Lead Industries Association, Inc., et al., where the Rhode Island Supreme Court overturned the only public nuisance jury verdict ever entered against manufacturers of lead pigment that was once used in paint. This was a significant victory for American Cyanamid and, in the words of the state's counsel, will have a "devastating effect" on plaintiffs continuing this litigation.
• Orrick is currently representing American Cyanamid in a series of lead-pigment-in-paint cases pending in state and federal courts around the country. The cases include actions on behalf of states, municipalities and governmental units, private classes and individuals and involve both personal injury and property damage claims.
• Orrick lawyers represent American Cyanamid and Cytec Industries Inc. as national counsel in litigation pending in courts around the United States concerning lead pigment in paint. The cases include actions for state, county and local governments; individual actions; and putative class actions. Our lawyers have won summary judgments for American Cyanamid in cases in New York, Baltimore and Milwaukee and have won dismissals of complaints in these and other jurisdictions.
• We represented American Cyanamid as lead counsel in Thomas v. American Cyanamid Co., Jones v. Lederle Laboratories and Dube v. Lederle Laboratories, three multi-week jury trials of cases involving permanent injuries to infants allegedly resulting from immunization with the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine. All three cases resulted in defense judgments, two of which were affirmed on appeal; the third resulted in the dismissal of plaintiffs’ appeal on jurisdictional grounds.
• As national counsel in another product liability action, we defended American Cyanamid in Shackil v. Lederle Laboratories, where the Supreme Court of New Jersey rejected all theories of collective liability (alternative liability, enterprise liability, concert-of-action liability and market share liability) with respect to all childhood vaccines.
• We also represented American Cyanamid in Tenuto v. Lederle Laboratories before the New York Court of Appeals, which reaffirmed the vitality of the learned intermediary rule. Orrick lawyers successfully argued for the retention of this doctrine on behalf of Lederle Laboratories, a division of American Cyanamid.
• An Orrick lawyer represented American Cyanamid in Worm v. American Cyanamid Co., a herbicide products liability case in which he obtained summary judgment on the basis of federal preemption. He argued the case twice before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, each time obtaining an affirmance of the trial court's preemption ruling.
• Orrick lawyers represented Lederle in the dismissal of a putative nationwide federal class action involving oral polio and tetanus toxoid vaccines. The Orrick team realized successful conclusions in both state and federal courts in Plummer v. Lederle Laboratories and Samuels v. American Cyanamid Co.

• The Dow Chemical Company
  Orrick lawyers helped secure a historic and complete win for The Dow Chemical Company in actions filed by Vietnam War veterans and by Vietnamese nationals alleging personal injuries from exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange. In the case, the Second Circuit issued three opinions affirming summary judgment for Dow, as well as other defendants.
• In In re Dow Corning Corporation, Orrick represented The Dow Chemical Company, one of two shareholders of Dow Corning Corporation, with respect to claims relating to silicone breast implants manufactured by Dow Corning. We are also representing Dow Corning in its reorganization and with respect to developing an overall strategy to litigate and resolve breast implant litigation against Dow Chemical. In addition, Orrick obtained the dismissal of a putative class action representing between 2 and 4 million potential plaintiffs related to the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

• Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust
  In Falise v. The American Tobacco Company, et al., we represented the Manville Trust through the Claims Resolution Management Corporation, other trusts and asbestos manufacturing successor corporations in litigation against the tobacco industry. This federal action in the Eastern District of New York involved recovering the tobacco industry's share of the liability to those injured by occupational and other exposure to asbestos.

• Wyeth Laboratories and American Home Products Corporation (AHP)
  Orrick serves as lead counsel on numerous product liability actions in New York and in federal courts throughout the United States, involving prescription and over-the-counter products.
• An Orrick team serves as national counsel for Wyeth in more than 250 product liability cases involving claims that childhood vaccines containing thimerosal have caused the development of “autistic-spectrum disorders” in some vaccinated children. Recent results in these cases have included a dismissal in East Texas after a Daubert hearing (Easter v. Aventis Pasteur, et al.), and appellate rulings affirming lower court dismissals in Oregon (Nestlen v. Aventis Pasteur, Inc., et al.), Pennsylvania (Ashton et al. v. Aventis Pasteur, Inc., et al.), and Illinois (Reilly v. Wyeth, et al.).
• We achieved a defense verdict for Wyeth and AHP in Ramirez v. Wyeth Laboratories, a three-week trial defeating product liability claims alleging permanent injuries from the use of the Norplant System®, a prescription contraceptive product that Wyeth distributed. The successful outcome of this trial, which was one of only three Norplant cases that were actually tried to a verdict, was a major factor contributing to the global settlement of the nationwide litigation. Currently, only a handful of Norplant cases remain pending in New York courts. At one time, there were more than 150 such actions involving nearly 1,500 plaintiffs claiming to have suffered a variety of personal injuries as a result of their use of Norplant. On a national level, Orrick lawyers played a significant role in investigating several of the more significant factual issues that have arisen in the litigation.

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Minimizing Liability Arising from Mass Torts

Using a strategic, long-term approach in order to maximize dismissals and minimize settlement amounts, our Litigation Group represents clients in many large toxic tort cases.

• Union Carbide Corporation
  Orrick is lead national counsel to Union Carbide Corporation in connection with asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits and achieved dismissals or trial victories in California, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia and elsewhere.

• American Cyanamid Company
  Orrick is lead national counsel in a dozen private and governmental entity product liability cases involving alleged injuries and property damage from lead pigments in paint.

• The Procter & Gamble Company
  Orrick is representing Procter & Gamble in actions challenging the toluene content in cosmetics in As You Sow v. Revlon.

• United Can Company
  Orrick is representing United Can Company in Lewis v. Union Carbide, a matter involving alleged exposure to a toxic substance.

• Ingredient Communication Council
  Orrick represented the Ingredient Communication Council (ICC), a nonprofit industry group providing Proposition 65 carcinogen and reproductive toxin warnings by means of a toll-free telephone warning system, in an action regarding the adequacy of the ICC’s warning system.

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