King & Spalding Earns Victory in Mass Toxic Tort Case for Cooper Industries

HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwire - February 8, 2008) - King & Spalding, a leading international law firm, earned a major victory for its client Cooper Industries in a mass toxic tort case. On February 5, 2008, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary judgment against four bellwether plaintiffs in the case and in doing so enforced a high benchmark for plaintiffs attempting to show injury from exposure to chemicals. Plaintiffs contended that general evidence of contamination in the area, combined with alleged evidence of elevated chemicals in the plaintiffs' blood, was sufficient to show causation. The court disagreed and found that such generalized evidence was insufficient to prove causation. Rather, plaintiffs were required to offer specific, quantified evidence of dose and exposure levels in order to prove causation. The court's ruling has important implications for the remaining plaintiffs as they must now demonstrate scientifically reliable evidence of specific causation to avoid dismissal of their actions.

The litigation centers on the National Electric Coil (NEC) plant, a former Cooper facility in Harlan, Kentucky. In February 1989, Kentucky officials discovered that the groundwater wells adjacent to the plant were contaminated with various chemicals. Eventually, the site was designated as a Superfund site by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, and thousands of local residents brought suit against Cooper claiming that the contamination had caused cancer and other serious diseases. In late 2006, the court ruled that a group of four bellwether plaintiffs could proceed to trial.

King & Spalding lawyers, working with co-counsel, presented extensive Daubert motions, attacking plaintiffs' specific causation experts for relying on qualitative evidence of contamination in the area rather than performing a quantitative dose/response calculation to support the contention that plaintiffs' exposure to chemicals from the NEC facility was sufficient to cause injury. The court granted both this motion as well as Cooper's motion for summary judgment.

The King & Spalding team representing Cooper Industries was led by partners Bobby Meadows and Tracie Renfroe, who were assisted by partners Cynthia Stroman and Brannon Robertson and counsel Jonathan Marsh.

About King & Spalding

King & Spalding is an international law firm with more than 800 lawyers in Atlanta, Charlotte, Dubai, Frankfurt, Houston, London, New York, Riyadh (affiliated office) and Washington, D.C. The firm represents half of the Fortune 100 and in a Corporate Counsel survey in September 2007 was among the top firms representing Fortune 250 companies. For additional information, visit www.kslaw.com.

Contact Information: Contact: Kimberly Brooks King & Spalding Ph. 212-827-4378