SAN FRANCISCO – A lawsuit filed by a Pennsylvania woman that took aim at the manufacturer, marketer and distributor of JUUL e-cigarettes over allegations they failed to warn of the products’ dangers will now be heard in a California federal court.
On Nov. 12, the case docket explained that plaintiff Kimberly Mays had her litigation against JUUL Labs, Inc., Altria Group, Inc. and up to 100 other John Doe defendants transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California – where a multidistrict litigation involving claims against JUUL is currently headquartered.
Mays initially filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against the defendants on Oct. 2, charging that their products have left her with permanent health difficulties.
“Ms. Mays has suffered multiple seizures, diagnosed short term memory loss, mood shifts, and permanent altering of her brain. JUUL’s vaping products proximately caused Ms. Mays’s injuries,” the suit stated.
According to the suit, after about two months of using the JUUL vaping products, May suffered two separate seizures in June and July, 30 minutes after vaping, with one seizure being so severe it required her to be hospitalized.
“Once an independent mother of two, Ms. Mays is now in a state of dependency – relying on others to care for her,” the complaint stated.
For counts of strict product liability – failure to warn, strict product liability – design defect, breach of implied warranty of merchantability, breach of express warranty, negligence, fraud and violation of Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, the plaintiff seeks attorneys’ fees, expenses, costs of the suit, punitive and treble damages, as well as pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.
The plaintiff is represented by Craig Lloyd Fishman of Shenderovich Shenderovich & Fishman, in Pittsburgh.
The defendants have not yet retained legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case 3:19-cv-07601
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 2:19-cv-00631
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com