U.S. Water News Online
SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court has blocked a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 800 Redlands residents who claim they were exposed to toxic chemicals in their drinking water.
Residents of the city 70 miles east of Los Angeles have sued Lockheed Martin Corp., alleging drinking water laced with a rocket fuel ingredient has caused a litany of cancers and other illnesses. The plaintiffs also want Lockheed to pay for monitoring the health of residents.
The justices, ruling 5-2, said the cases cannot be consolidated as a class action. The court said residents may sue on an individual basis to allow each plaintiff to prove damages or require health monitoring for illnesses that may occur in the future.
Class actions, the court said, are only allowed when those suing have similar claims.
In this case, the justices said the only way to determine if a plaintiff has been injured is for that plaintiff to sue on his or her own. Each plaintiff, the court said, could have different claims and probably have been subjected to varied amounts of pollution.
``The questions respecting each individual class member's right to recover ... following any class judgment appear so numerous and substantial as to render any efficiencies attainable through a joint trial of common issues insufficient,'' Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar wrote.
The court did not address the merits of the accusations. Lockheed denies them. California has ordered Lockheed to clean up the contamination.
The plaintiffs allege perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient, has seeped into drinking water from a former Lockheed rocket engine testing facility, and has sickened residents.
Perchlorate interferes with how the body brings iodide into the thyroid and can disrupt how the gland regulates metabolism. It isn't known how much perchlorate is dangerous.
Perchlorate became a widespread concern in 1997, when scientists learned to detect it in even minute concentrations in groundwater.
It is unclear whether the high court's opinion will impact similar lawsuits. That is because the court, ruling 4-3 in the Redlands case, said that class actions in such cases are not always barred.
The most recent case seeking class-action status was filed last month, when homeowners in an unincorporated area near San Jose sued. They alleged that a former highway flare operation in Morgan Hill contaminated their drinking water wells with perchlorate.
The recently-decided case is Lockheed Martin Corp. v. San Bernardino Superior Court, S088548.
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