The slugfest over a lawsuit centered on lead concerns in Stanley drinkware isn’t relenting.
Pacific Market International (PMI), parent company of the popular Stanley tumbler brand, has filed new motions in federal court in Washington state to have the proposed class action lawsuit it’s facing dismissed.
The move comes in response to a filing plaintiffs made in late August. That filing asked U.S. District Judge Tana Lin to deny a previous motion by PMI to dismiss the case.
In the latest motions, PMI argued that the plaintiffs’ calls for the lawsuit to proceed fail to hold water, and as such, the case against PMI/Stanley should indeed be thrown out.
Consumers from several states have teamed up as plaintiffs, seeking class action status for a suit that would represent essentially anyone who bought a Stanley tumbler in the United States. But according to attorneys for PMI, their case is fatally flawed.
For one thing, the plaintiffs fail to show evidence that the presence of lead in Stanley tumblers has caused negative health effects on anyone who bought the drinkware in question.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys say that doing so is unnecessary because the case hinges on PMI failing to tell consumers about lead in the products, not actual health impacts. PMI rejects that line of reasoning – and said Lin should, too.
“Plaintiffs cannot have it both ways,” PMI attorneys said in court papers. “They cannot base their lawsuit on defendant’s alleged failure to disclose the presence of a ‘deadly toxin’ in its product that creates a ‘safety and health-related concern’ and at the same time disclaim any obligation to plead and prove that the product actually causes harm. After all, if Stanley cups do not cause harm, why should anyone care about the alleged nondisclosure?”
In a separate motion that also calls for the case to be dismissed, PMI said the lawsuit should be chucked because plaintiffs are trying to apply Washington state law to the claims of consumers in all 50 states – something that “violates bedrock principles of federalism and upsets the settled expectations of both consumers and defendants.”
“Because plaintiffs’ request for certification of a nationwide class is premised on applying Washington law to the claims of all members of the purported nationwide class, the court should deny that request and strike the nationwide class allegations,” PMI said in a filing.
Judge Lin has not yet ruled on PMI’s motions to dismiss or the consumer plaintiffs’ call to have the suit proceed.
The case seeks what would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages – to be given to consumers who bought Stanley tumblers.
After videos started circulating on social media about Stanley lead concerns, PMI said in January that the material it uses to vacuum-insulate tumblers at their base contains some lead.
Lawsuits soon followed, as excessive lead exposure can cause adverse health effects ranging from cardiovascular problems and kidney damage to nervous system issues and slower growth/development in children.
The current case is a consolidation of multiple class action lawsuits that consumers brought against PMI over the lead issue. The courts had previously denied PMI’s request to dismiss some of the cases in April, opting instead to consolidate them.
Stanley tumblers have been popular sellers at retail and in the promotional products industry. ASI Media named the Stanley Quencher the 2023 Product of the Year in the branded-merch market. The items continue to generate a high level of searches in ASI’s product research and procurement databases, ESP and ESP+.
