By Clark Mindock
April 23 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday awarded over $956 million in legal fees to plaintiffs’ lawyers who secured two settlements worth more than $11 billion with major manufacturers of toxic “forever chemicals” on behalf of public water systems.
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel in Charleston, South Carolina, granted unopposed fee requests after 3M , DuPont de Nemours Inc , Chemours and Corteva
last year agreed to resolve claims that their products polluted drinking water in the United States with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
PFAS are a class of thousands of chemicals used in firefighting foams, nonstick pans and stain resistant fabrics. They have been linked to cancer and other diseases and are often called forever chemicals because they do not easily break down in nature or the human body.
Last year, 3M agreed to a PFAS-related settlement with public water systems worth $10.3 billion, while the other companies agreed to a settlement worth $1.19 billion. The companies did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the deals.
The attorneys' award represents 8% of the two settlements plus roughly $21 million in out-of-pocket expenses. The litigation has been led by the law firms Napoli Shkolnik, Douglas & London, Baron & Budd, Motley Rice and FeganScott.
“This has indeed been a long-fought case, and it's been years of dedicated work without compensation for many involved,” Paul Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik said in an email.
The award will be dispersed in stages as the settlements are paid out, and a special master will determine how the funds are distributed between firms.
Roughly 26,000 water systems across the country will use the rest of the settlement money to test for and treat PFAS contamination, which is now mandated under a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule issued this month.
The law firms represent water systems in several other active cases against different chemical companies in Gergel's court, one of which is due to go to trial in October. Companies also face thousands of personal injury lawsuits and cases filed by states and property owners.
The case is In Re Aqueous Film-Forming Foams Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, case No. 2:18-mn-02873.
For the plaintiffs: Paul Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik; Michael London of Douglas & London; Scott Summy of Baron & Budd; and Elizabeth Fegan of Fegan Scott.
For 3M: Richard Bulger, Daniel Ring and Michael Olsen of Mayer Brown
For DuPont: Molly Craig of the Hood Law Firm and David Erickson of Shook Hardy and Bacon
Read More:
'Forever chemicals’ were everywhere in 2023. Expect more litigation in 2024
(Reporting by Clark Mindock)
((Clark.Mindock@thomsonreuters.com;))
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