Opinion ID: 779089
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Parties and the Claims

Text: 5 The present actions, consolidated in the district court for all pretrial purposes sub nom. In re Pfohl Brothers Landfill Litigation, were commenced by the filing of several essentially identical complaints between January 1995 and January 1997 by more than 60 plaintiffs on behalf of themselves or their respective decedents, alleging that the injured parties suffered from various cancers caused by exposure to toxic wastes deposited in the Pfohl Landfill. The complaints alleged that most of the plaintiffs had lived or worked in the immediate vicinity of the Landfill or had engaged in recreational activities near the Landfill. Many of the plaintiffs had used the Landfill area as an access route to Aero Lake; their children had often played in the Landfill; and residential properties were sometimes flooded when Ellicott Creek overflowed. 6 The defendants are companies that, between 1946 and 1969, either sent hazardous waste materials from their manufacturing operations to the Landfill or transported hazardous substances to, and deposited them in, the Landfill. Plaintiffs alleged that the cancers were caused by exposure to hazardous substances released from the Landfill through the air and water and/or released by the defendant transporters on their way to the Landfill. The complaints asserted survival, wrongful death, personal injury, and loss-of-consortium claims under New York State law, and requested compensatory and punitive damages on theories of, inter alia, strict liability, negligence, gross negligence, and failure to warn. 7