Industry sighs in relief as court throws out brain-cancer suits

The Superior Court of the District of Columbia today threw out six brain-cancer lawsuits against the mobile-phone industry, potentially removing a legal cloud that could have cost wireless carriers and manufacturers billions of dollars.
The decision to dismiss the suits was based on jurisdictional grounds, with Judge Cheryl Long agreeing with the wireless industry and the Federal Communications Commission that the complaints were pre-empted by federal law. The six suits have bounced between Superior Court and federal court since being filed several years ago. Today’s ruling was the biggest for the wireless industry since a 2002 federal court decision that tossed out an $800 million brain-cancer lawsuit against wireless companies because of inadequate scientific evidence.
Long was unequivocal in her ruling.
“This is not a close question. Having found that multiple alternative pre-emption doctrines are controlling, this court has no discretion to allow the claims to proceed any further,” stated Long in the 69-page decision.
Cellphone trade association CTIA declined comment, saying only it would let the ruling speak for itself.
It is unclear whether the plaintiffs will seek an appeal.
Jeffrey Morganroth, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said he wanted to review the ruling before commenting.