A federal appeals court has breathed new life into a class action lawsuit alleging that St. John the Baptist Parish residents were exposed to unsafe levels of the chemical chloroprene from a plant that manufacturers synthetic rubber.
The U.S. Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 15 that the class action filed by LaPlace resident Juanea Butler was not timed out as a result of provisions of Louisiana law. Butler began reporting symptoms such as acute bronchitis, nose bleeds and hair loss in April of 2012 and initially filed her lawsuit in state court in June 2018.
A federal district court had dismissed the case because it found Butler’s claims against DuPont, the former owner of the Pontchartrain Works Facility, exceeded Louisiana’s one-year limitations period for filing such claims. But the Fifth District disagreed, concluding that it was uncertain when Butler possessed adequate evidence linking her symptoms to chloroprene exposure prior to her 2018 lawsuit.
“Absent a diagnosis or any facts that Butler received sufficient notice linking her symptoms to chloroprene, and drawing all reasonable inferences in Butler’s favor at the pleadings stage, we cannot conclude that Butler had constructive notice more than one year prior to filing suit,” the Fifth Circuit said in its opinion.
The appeals court, however, did not send the case back to state court, as the plaintiff sought. Some of Butler’s claims against the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for failure to oversee the facility’s emissions were also dismissed.
A spokesman for DuPont said the company would continue to defend its arguments as the federal class action case moves forward.
“DuPont does not comment on pending litigation,” Daniel Turner told the Louisiana Record in an email. “We will continue to vigorously defend our record of safety, health and environmental stewardship and expect to prevail in this case.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air sampling found unsafe levels of chloroprene during air sampling conducted at the LaPlace neoprene plant in August 2016. The results of chloroprene exposure in humans can be higher risk of cancer, headache, dizziness, insomnia, nausea, hair loss and conjunctivitis, according to the EPA.
The neoprene plant was purchased from DuPont by Denka Performance Elastomer in 2015.