Camp Lejeune Litigation Update
Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell continues to serve in a leadership role in the Camp Lejeune water litigation, which involves claims by veterans, family members, and others exposed to decades of contaminated drinking water at the base. In the latest development, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina granted the Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group’s motion to strike untimely and improper supplemental materials from a key government expert.
Attorneys Mark Mandell and Zachary Mandell have been deeply involved in this litigation. Zachary played a leading role in deposing the government’s general-causation expert, Dr. Julie Goodman. Following her deposition, and in direct response to a motion to exclude her testimony, Dr. Goodman attempted to make approximately 300 changes to her opinions relating to over 75 different epidemiology studies found in her reports. The court struck these proposed changes and found that the government improperly attempted to supplement these materials months after the applicable expert deadline, after plaintiffs had already deposed Dr. Goodman, and only in response to a motion to exclude her opinions.
The court also rejected the argument that these were just typographical and inadvertent errors. It held that the changes went beyond proper supplementation under Rule 26, explaining that many were substantive and that the rules do not allow a party to rework expert disclosures long after deadlines have passed. As such, the court struck the proposed supplemental materials in full.
This was a very important win for the plaintiffs whose claims might have been impacted had the court allowed these materials to be supplemented.
