Camp Lejeune Plaintiffs Ask for Trials to Be Grouped By Diseases

As trials for the toxic water lawsuit at Camp Lejeune approach in 2024, the Plaintiff Leadership Group has asked a federal court in North Carolina to group the trials based on diseases that the plaintiffs claim to have contracted from contaminated water. 

Grouping Camp Lejeune Trials by Diseases

Since there are 29 plaintiffs in Track 1 scheduled for trial, the plaintiffs argue that consolidating them by disease would save time and resources. The five illnesses that the cases would be grouped into are: 

• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Parkinson’s disease
• Leukemia

In addition to saving time and resources, the plaintiffs argued that grouping the trials would be useful since there is a single jury pool with limited resources. Grouping the trials would also lessen the number of trials fact witnesses would need to attend. 

If trials were combined by diseases, the plaintiffs proposed that the five non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases could go to trial in seven days, the six bladder cancer cases in six days, the eight kidney cancer cases in eight days, the five Parkinson’s cases in seven days, and the five leukemia cases in five days. Grouping the trials by diseases would allow the cases to be tried exponentially faster than if they were tried individually.

Simplified Causation Request

The plaintiffs had previously filed a memorandum that asked the court to simplify the causation standard at trial. Pointing out that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has already released assessments stating that the chemicals found in Camp Lejeune’s water supply can cause the diseases the plaintiffs claim to suffer, the plaintiffs asked the court to make causation and exposure rulings pre-trial.

If the court grants the request, there will be less of a need for expert witnesses at trial, and it will cut down on the pending motions related to causation. 

About the Camp Lejeune Lawsuit

Between 1953 and 1987, thousands of U.S. Marines and their families were exposed to incredibly dangerous and toxic water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Over a 34-year period, tainted water wells supplied thousands of Marine families that drank, bathed in, and cooked with this water. These Marines, Reservists, Guardsmen, contractors, and their families have started coming forward to file Camp Lejeune claims for diseases they contracted from the contaminated water. 

Some of the diseases linked to water contamination at Camp Lejeune include but are not limited to: 

• Esophageal cancer
• Breast cancer
• Leukemia 
• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Liver cancer
• Multiple myeloma
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Parkinson’s Disease

After the passage of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, nearly 1500 suits were filed by Veterans their families against the government for damages resulting from water contamination on the military base.

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