BENTON – Prisoner Robert Christopher Adams earned the right to sue chemical giant DuPont in larger litigation over pollution injuries.
On March 11, Senior U.S. District Judge Phil Gilbert transferred a claim that Adams filed last year to Multi District Judge Edmund Sargus of Columbus, Ohio.
Sargus presides over claims that ammonium perfluorooctanoate, or “C-8,” contaminated drinking water.
Britt Sowle of Edwardsville, representing Adams by appointment from Gilbert, filed the transfer motion that Gilbert signed.
Transfer eliminates the need to serve the suit on DuPont, a feat Adams couldn’t achieve from Western Illinois penitentiary at Mount Sterling.
Lack of service caused Gilbert to dismiss the suit in January.
Adams filed a reconsideration motion stating, “I’ve tried all of the options that I have which is very limited.”
Gilbert vacated his order, finding DuPont settled an action with more than 70,000 persons from six water districts.
He found that numerous injury cases arose since settlement.
He also found Adams possibly had a viable suit related to that family of suits.
He appointed Sowle, and they conversed for five minutes on March 2.
Sowle moved for transfer on March 9, writing that the Ohio court had exclusive jurisdiction over Adams’s claims and controversy.
He wrote that transfer would allow for convenient adjudication and provide relative ease of access to proof and experienced judicial oversight.
Gilbert granted the motion and ordered coordination and consolidation based on common questions of fact, convenience, justice, and efficiency.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multi District Litigation centralized C-8 litigation in 2013, on a motion from DuPont.