Judge OK’s class action status in PFOA suit

This article by Jim Therrien originally appeared June 11 in the Bennington Banner.

BENNINGTON — Residents seeking damages over PFOA contamination of groundwater in an area around former ChemFab Corp. plants in Bennington have won another round in their suit against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics.

U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford has ruled that the suit can go forward as a class action. Property owners who qualify for a defined class can now join together, rather than try to take on the international firm in individual suits.

Emily Joselson, of Langrock Sperry & Wool, of Middlebury, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said they were gratified that the court has recognized the strengths of the case being presented.

“We think the evidence has always been very strong,” she said.

The suit contends that the contamination was released through factory stacks as part of a manufacturing process. ChemFab, which Saint-Gobain acquired in 2000, coated fabrics with liquid Teflon at the local plants for more than 30 years, ending in 2002 when those operations were moved to New Hampshire.

Read full article at the Bennington Banner.

(Fair use with written permission from the New England Newspapers Inc.)

Image courtesy of Public domain