A federal district judge in Baltimore dismissed on Thursday a radio-frequency health lawsuit against Verizon Communications, formerly Bell Atlantic Corp., and SBC Communications Inc., and it told the plaintiff, Christopher J. Newman, that he had until Jan. 16 to refile his claim of fraud against Motorola Inc., the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association and the Telecommunications Industry Association.
“Coupled last week with the release of the epidemiology studies and the judge’s order showing reliance on those studies, this reflects that the plaintiffs have not been able to demonstrate a theory of causation,” said Michael Altschul, CTIA vice president and general counsel.
Newman filed suit against Motorola, Verizon, SBC, CTIA, TIA and others in Maryland state court last August claiming that use of his Motorola wireless phone between 1992 and 1998 caused a cancerous brain tumor. The telecom industry successfully moved the case to federal court.
In her decision dated Dec. 21, Judge Catherine C. Blake refused to move the case back to state court saying Newman did not successfully argue that the case should be in state court. In addition to the Jan. 16 deadline for filing an amended complaint against Motorola, CTIA and TIA, Blake set a discovery schedule to begin on Jan. 2 with a status report due Feb. 2.
Newman is represented by Joanne Suder of the Baltimore-based Suder & Suder law firm.
