Plaintiffs ask to drop California brain cancer suit against Motorola, others

Motorola Inc. said a lawyer for a California landscape contractor who alleged in a suit that heavy cellphone use caused his fatal brain tumor has asked a state court to throw out the case.
The mobile-phone manufacturer, which made the disclosure in a quarterly filing Tuesday at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the plaintiffs filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the suit on April 4.
The Gibb Brower suit was filed in 2001 against Motorola and others. The suit bounced between state and federal courts before returning to the Superior Court of the State of California in early 2006.
The suit alleged defendants engaged in deceptive and misleading actions by falsely stating that cellphones are safe and by failing to disclose studies that allegedly show cellphones can cause harm. Brower sought injunctive relief and damages in the suit.
In other cellphone-health litigation, six brain-cancer suits against cellular companies and others are pending in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Another suit seeking to force cellular operators to supply consumers with hands-free headsets to reduce their exposure to phone radiation is still alive in a federal court in Baltimore.