News Brief
BNA’s Toxics Law Reporter Shares Carl Pernicone’s View on a Recent Fracking Verdict
Carl Pernicone (Partner-White Plains) was quoted on a March 14, 2016, article in BNA’s Toxics Law Reporter titled “$4.2 Million Fracking Verdict Likely to Spark More Suits.” The decision in Ely v. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, M.D. Pa., No. 09-cv-02284, 3/10/16, is one of the first fracking nuisance verdicts finding for plaintiffs. Carl believes that plaintiffs will still face a problem of causation: “The jury did not return a finding that the fracking process itself resulted in contamination of drinking water supplies. Indeed, from a liability standpoint, the focus of the case wasn’t about fracking at all; rather, it was on drilling.” He added, “At end of the day, despite all the spin, the Ely verdict simply does not provide the plaintiff’s bar with what they’ve desperately been seeking: A clear, unequivocal jury finding of a nexus between the mechanisms of hydraulic fracturing and contamination of drinking water resources.”