Products Liability & Toxic Tort

• In the longest jury trial in Rhode Island history—the Attorney General’s landmark lead-litigation public-nuisance case—AP&S successfully defended Atlantic Richfield Company, the only defendant found not responsible by the jury at trial.  We also represented Atlantic Richfield successfully on appeal, where the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the verdict in the company’s favor.  (All defendants ultimately prevailed on appeal).  AP&S also argued on behalf of all defendants with respect to their attacks on the Attorney General’s contingency-fee agreement with private counsel.
• Our attorneys represented The Dow Chemical Company in a six-week herbicide-exposure case where the plaintiff claimed multiple myeloma.  In this case, the Rhode Island Supreme Court adopted the Daubert standard for the admission of scientific expert testimony in our state courts.
• AP&S served on The Dow Chemical Company’s national trial counsel team in its breast implant litigation cases.
• AP&S defended Union Carbide Company and K.T.I. Chemicals, Ltd. in claims of birth defects resulting from photo-resist chemicals used in clean rooms.
• We defended numerous manufacturers of TCE, including The Dow Chemical Company, PPG Industries, and ICI Americas, Inc., in chemical-exposure cases, obtaining defense verdicts or summary judgments in every case.
• AP&S served as national counsel on silica defense for a major manufacturer.
• AP&S attorneys have defended Dow Agrosciences, Inc. on numerous pesticides exposure and FIFRA-related claims.
• Our attorneys have tried to verdict numerous cases for pest-control companies alleging personal injuries from exposure to various chemicals and insecticides.
• AP&S attorneys have defended herbicide and pesticide manufacturers on property damage claims allegedly resulting from damage to crops, buildings, land and premises.
• AP&S attorneys have represented pharmaceutical manufacturers in numerous cases, including

Viagra ® cases for Pfizer. 

Hormone replacement therapy cases for Pfizer.

PPA cases for Novartis.

Zyprexa® cases for Eli Lilly.

DES (including third generation DES) cases for Eli Lilly.

Avandia® cases for SmithKline Beecham Corporation d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline.

Renu® contact lens solution cases for Bausch and Lomb.

• AP&S has tried to defense verdict asbestos cases in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for various defendants.
• We’ve obtained defense verdicts in various equipment and machinery product-liability cases including defense verdicts in machine-guarding accident cases, printing-press cases, and cases involving electrical devices.
• AP&S has defended Textron, Avco, Lycoming and Bell Helicopter in various product-liability cases relating to aircraft engines and component parts.
• We represented a distributor of alternators in a double wrongful-death lawsuit arising from a motor vehicle accident and obtained summary judgment on the issue pertaining to the lack of foreseeability.  AP&S also defended the judgment on appeal.
• AP&S defended a major cigarette manufacturer in federal district court in the case where a woman sued for the death of her husband, a long-time smoker, who succumbed to cancer.  The jury found in the defendants’ favor on all counts of the complaint.
• AP&S represents a national utility company in federal district court litigation where the plaintiffs (property owners) allege that their properties were contaminated by manufactured gas wastes generated at the defendant’s plant in a neighboring state and deposited on their property in the early to mid 1900s.