Bill Extends Time Limitation On PFOA Litigation

by Alex Brooks
A bill sponsored by State Senator Kathy Marchione revising statute of limitation law relating to “toxic torts” was passed unanimously by the New York State Senate in the final hours of the session. The bill, sponsored in the assembly by Assemblyman John McDonald, passed the Assembly last winter by a vote of 132-7.[private]
McDonald explained the need for the bill at that time by saying, “There is an ongoing investigation into the causal relationship between the intake of what is now considered contaminated water and the declining health of those affected. The intent of this bill is simple – to provide residents that are potentially impacted a path forward to seek relief if they were injured. It is right and just not only for those residents in Hoosick Falls but in other communities where this potential issue or issues such as this could arise again,” said Assemblyman McDonald.
McDonald’s press release said, “What distinguishes the injuries suffered by many residents of Hoosick Falls from other exposure cases is that members of this community had no idea they had even been exposed to any hazardous toxins until years after they had become sick. Individuals in Hoosick Falls or those in any other circumstances which would fall under the scope of this bill should not be denied legal recourse simply because the statute of limitations has run on a claim they never knew that they had.”
The bill was in committee in the Senate since then, until Marchione pushed for its passage at the end of the Legislative session last week. Curiously, Marchione amended the bill at the last minute in ways that critics called sabotage. Some said plaintiffs would be worse off than they are now if the amended bill passed, and news outlets reported that she had killed her own bill. But Marchione then reversed course, took out the amendments and went back to the original version, which passed the Senate unanimously.  Marchione said she put in the amendments to increase the chance of the bill’s passage, but the fact that the original version passed unanimously suggests it was not necessary to weaken the bill in order to get it passed. Local attorney Ed Gorman, who was involved in an initiative among local attorneys that helped launch the bill last winter, said, “It clearly was unnecessary” to amend the bill in order to get it passed.
The Business Council opposed the bill, and critics have suggested that Marchione’s actions may have arisen out of pressure from them, but in any case the bill was passed intact and as long as Governor Cuomo signs it, the legal position of Hoosick Falls PFOA plaintiffs has been improved.
Under current law the statute of limitations begins when an injury is discovered. The problem with that in the case of Hoosick Falls is that if someone got sick over five years ago, the statute of limitations would have expired before they learned that PFOA might have been the cause of the illness. Plaintiffs now have three years from the Superfund declaration to file a claim, even if the illness began some time ago.
The bill of course does not do anything to help plaintiffs prove that their illness was caused by ingestion of PFOA, but it preserves their right to try to prove such a claim.[/private]