WASHINGTON-The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to send back to state court four class-action lawsuits seeking to force the wireless industry to supply consumers with headsets to reduce any injury from mobile-phone radiation. Another headset suit was remanded for further proceedings to U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake, who dismissed all five lawsuits in March 2003 on federal pre-emption grounds.
The mobile-phone industry, which has yet to lose a health-related case, suddenly finds itself in a legal venue favored by many trial lawyers.
The case was argued last October before a three-judge federal appeals panel in Richmond, Va. Former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr argued the appeal for the cellular industry. Starr, dean of Pepperdine University School of Law, did not immediately return a call for comment.
“We’re pleased. We think the court ruled correctly,” said Michael Allweiss, a Louisiana lawyer who filed the first headset case and who argued for the plaintiffs before the 4th Circuit.
Last July, Blake, who in 2002 rejected an $800 million brain-cancer lawsuit against Motorola Inc. and others, remanded six brain-cancer lawsuits against mobile-phone companies and industry trade associations to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The mobile-phone industry has asked Judge Brook Hedge to dismiss the six brain-cancer lawsuits based on a federal pre-emption defense. The 4th Circuit decision could hurt industry’s case.
