Sixth Circuit Dismisses PFAS Class Action
Hardwick v. 3M Co., 6th Cir. No. 22-3765 (Nov. 27, 2023). In this Rule 23(f) interlocutory appeal, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded a putative class action filed against ten manufacturers of PFAS chemicals, otherwise known as “forever chemicals.” Studies have linked these chemicals a host of medical conditions. Plaintiff served as a firefighter for over 40 years and had used firefighting foams that contained PFAS.
The Court held that Plaintiff lacked standing because he failed to allege facts plausibly supporting an inference that each defendant “likely caused” at least one of the five PFAS compounds detected in his blood. It explained that a plaintiff cannot sue multiple defendants if more particular facts would only let him proceed against one. The Court noted Plaintiff’s failure to plead that any of the defendants, much less all of them, manufactured any of the PFAS chemicals involved and failed to allege any plausible pathway by which Defendants delivered the chemicals into his bloodstream. The Court rejected this type of “the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation” as inadequate.
