Jonathan Selbin of the national plaintiffs' law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Scott Starr of the Indiana law firm of Starr, Austen & Miller, LLP, announced that a Pennsylvania homeowner and an Indiana golf course company today filed a nationwide class action lawsuit against E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company charging that DuPont's herbicide Imprelis is causing widespread death among trees and other non-targeted vegetation across the country.
The complaint specifically charges that DuPont failed to adequately disclose the risks Imprelis poses to trees, even when applied as directed, and failed to provide adequate instructions for its safe application. Plaintiffs' counsel are working with a leading academic scientist in the fields of forest resources, tree physiology and landscape management to further identify the cause and nature of the problem and to recommend steps property owners should take to preserve evidence.
“Even though it's a new product, Imprelis has been widely adopted by landscapers and lawn-care specialists who believed DuPont's claims that it is safe and an environmentally-friendly herbicide," says plaintiffs' counsel Jonathan Selbin. "Instead, the evidence is quickly piling up that Imprelis is attacking trees as if they are weeds."
“It is critical that property owners with dead or dying trees take steps now to preserve evidence," Selbin says. "You should take soil and foliage samples that can be analyzed later to show the presence of Imprelis, as well as take detailed photographs of the dead or damaged trees."
"This is affecting thousands of homeowners and other property owners, such as golf courses, who have watched as their valued and valuable trees die," said plaintiffs' counsel Scott Starr. Noting that DuPont recently acknowledged the growing problem, sending a letter to some owners and posting a belated warning on its website, Starr added: "DuPont should promptly take Imprelis off the market and accept full responsibility for the great damage the product has caused."
Plaintiff R.N. Thompson Golf, LLC, owns and manages several golf courses in the greater Indianapolis area, including the Winding Ridge Golf Course and the Ironwood Gold Course. "We have witnessed catastrophic tree loss around our golf courses after the application of Imprelis, and have received numerous complaints and inquiries about the tree damage and appearance of our courses from our customers," explains Mark Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of R.N. Thompson Golf, LLC. "We filed this lawsuit to inform other businesses and homeowners about this problem to let them know there is reason their trees are dying and to give them a course of action to fix the problem."
The lawsuit, entitled Shomo v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, was filed in federal court in Delaware, where DuPont has its headquarters. The proposed class consists of all persons and entities whose property was exposed to Imprelis between October 4, 2010 and the date of trial, in particular, those who own: (a) property on which Imprelis was applied; (b) trees or other vegetation whose roots extend under property on which Imprelis was applied or; (c) property onto which Imprelis migrated.
The relief plaintiffs seek for themselves and the proposed class includes compensation for the cost of replacing trees that have died or are dying and an injunction barring DuPont from continuing to sell Imprelis.