Bailey Glasser Defeats Occidental Chemical’s Motions to Dismiss Toxic Tort Lawsuit

On behalf of two clients poisoned by toxic clouds of incinerated chemical-laden wastewater in Petrolia, Pennsylvania, Bailey & Glasser, LLP ("Bailey Glasser") successfully defeated two Motions to Dismiss (in Pennsylvania these motions are called “demurrers”) in a lawsuit pending in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The matter will now proceed to discovery.

The litigation team in this case is led by partner Michael “Mickey” Robb, partner Travis A. Prince, and associate Timothy Leckenby. The defendants in the case include Beazer USA, INDSPEC Chemical Corporation, Koppers, Inc., Interstate Chemical Company, Occidental Chemical Corporation, and Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and others.

The facts of this case are as follows:

The Petrolia Chemical Plant (owned by the Occidental Chemical Corporation) was one of the biggest manufacturers of resorcinol until 2017. The biggest use of resorcinol is in the rubber and tire industry as an adhesive to bond rubber to steel. The plant manufactured approximately 50 million points of resorcinol every year.

To create resorcinol, the plant generated million of gallons of wastewater every year which was collected and incinerated in a high pressure reactor. Because various chemicals, salts, and chlorides were in each batch of wastewater it incinerated, the process created dangerous toxins in the form of dioxins and dibenzofurans to exit the reactor’s smoke stack which ironically is lower in height than almost all of the homes that surround the plant in the small, industrial town.

Bailey Glasser is now fighting to protect our clients and others like them by taking on these giant chemical companies in court.

To read the Amended Complaint in this matter, visit this link.

To read the Court’s orders denying the defendants' demurrers, please visit here.

Partner Mickey Robb has decades of experience taking on companies that poison innocent people, including in the asbestos industry. As one example of his work, in March 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported on one of his cases where he represented a retired college professor who contracted mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos-contaminated buildings at the Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. Michael’s extensive investigation into Pennsylvania State University showed that not only were the buildings his professor client worked in contaminated with asbestos but so are hundreds of other buildings on the university’s main campus and satellite branch campuses located throughout Pennsylvania. Mr. Robb has uncovered asbestos contamination in hundreds of colleges and university buildings across the nation.

Learn more about Mickey Robb and his important work here.