Weitz & Luxenberg is a New York mass tort firm whose PFAS lawsuit work has produced two of the country’s better-known PFOA drinking-water settlements: $65.25 million for Hoosick Falls, New York, and $23.5 million for Petersburgh, New York. The firm also represented the City of Stuart, Florida, in the first bellwether case of the national aqueous film-forming foam multidistrict litigation, and it continues to take PFAS water-contamination and consumer-product cases, though it has stopped accepting new AFFF firefighting-foam claims.1Weitz & Luxenberg. Firefighting Foam Pollution
Hoosick Falls: $65.25 Million
The firm’s signature PFAS result came out of Hoosick Falls, a Rensselaer County village of about 3,500 people where residents learned in 2014 that their drinking water contained PFOA traced to a McCaffrey Street manufacturing facility. The class action, Michelle Baker et al. v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. et al., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York against Saint-Gobain, Honeywell International, 3M, and DuPont.2Weitz & Luxenberg. 65 Million Settlement Hoosick Falls PFOA Water Litigation
On May 18, 2020, the Second Circuit ruled in Baker v. Saint-Gobain and the companion Benoit v. Saint-Gobain that plaintiffs could pursue personal injury, property damage, and medical monitoring claims. The court held that the buildup of PFOA in residents’ blood was sufficient “physical injury” under New York law to support medical monitoring damages, even without a diagnosed disease.3FindLaw. Baker v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp.
Three of the four defendants agreed to settle in July 2021 for $65.25 million; DuPont did not participate. The money was split into roughly $21 million for property damage (municipal and private well users), nearly $8 million for nuisance claims, and close to $23 million for a ten-year medical monitoring program. The settlement preserved residents’ right to sue later if they develop illnesses tied to the contamination.2Weitz & Luxenberg. 65 Million Settlement Hoosick Falls PFOA Water Litigation Final approval came on February 7, 2022, and more than 2,300 claims were filed.4WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Companies Agree to 65M Settlement Over Hoosick Falls PFAS Lawsuit
Petersburgh: $23.5 Million
The Petersburgh case grew out of PFOA contamination discovered in February 2016 in the municipal supply and private wells of a town of roughly 1,500 people. The source was a Taconic Plastics facility owned by Tonoga, Inc., which manufactured PTFE-coated products and, according to the complaint, released PFOA through smokestacks and disposed of PFOA-containing waste into the local septic system and a landfill.5Weitz & Luxenberg. Petersburgh NY PFOA Contamination Settlement
Weitz & Luxenberg filed Burdick v. Tonaga, Inc., dba Taconic in fall 2017. It was certified as a class action in July 2018 and cleared to proceed by a New York Supreme Court judge in January 2020, described as the first class-action PFOA pollution lawsuit filed in New York.5Weitz & Luxenberg. Petersburgh NY PFOA Contamination Settlement
In October 2021, the parties announced a $23.5 million settlement. About $4.4 million went to owners on the public water system, roughly $4 million to owners with contaminated private wells (about $10,000 per household member), and roughly $8.5 million to a 15-year medical monitoring program for individuals whose PFOA blood levels exceeded 1.86 parts per billion.6WaterWorld. Taconic Plastics to Pay 23.5 Million to Settle Petersburgh New York Water Pollution Case The state had already declared the Taconic factory a Superfund site in May 2016.7Barn Raising Media. Petersburgh PFAS Taconic Plastics Settlements Recovery
City of Stuart and the National AFFF Bellwether
Alongside Morgan & Morgan, Weitz & Luxenberg represented the City of Stuart, Florida, in a 2018 lawsuit alleging that 3M’s aqueous film-forming foam products had contaminated the city’s groundwater wells with PFAS.8CBS12. Stuart Contamination Lawsuit Settlement 3M The case sits inside MDL 2873, the AFFF multidistrict litigation before Judge Richard M. Gergel in the District of South Carolina, and it was chosen as the first bellwether. Stuart and 3M reached a confidential settlement that the Stuart City Commission approved on June 26, 2023; the dollar amount was not disclosed.9Weitz & Luxenberg. City Stuart Announces Settlement 3M Contamination Citys Water Systems
The Stuart deal preceded the larger public water system settlements in the same MDL. 3M agreed to pay up to $12.5 billion over 13 years (2023–2036), with final court approval on March 29, 2024.103M. 3M Settlement With Public Water Suppliers to Address PFAS DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva agreed to a combined $1.185 billion, approved in February 2024.11ASDWA. Judge Approves Settlement Requiring DuPont Chemours and Corteva to Pay 1.1 Billion in PFAS Contamination Suit Those funds go to public water infrastructure, not to households or individuals with injuries.
Personal injury claims within the MDL are still unresolved. More than 15,000 individual cases are pending, with a 28-case bellwether pool across kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, and ulcerative colitis. No injury settlements have been reached, the October 2025 bellwether trial was taken off the calendar, and attorneys involved expect a possible global resolution in 2026 or 2027.12MDL Update. MDL 2873 Aqueous Film-Forming Foams
PFAS Consumer Product Cases
The firm has pushed PFAS claims into consumer products, with mixed results. In 2022 it filed class actions in the Southern District of New York against L’Oreal USA and Coty, Inc. (maker of CoverGirl), alleging that waterproof mascaras contained undisclosed PFAS.13Weitz & Luxenberg. WL Files Class Action Lawsuits PFAS Mascara The Coty case was dismissed in March 2023 and the L’Oreal case later in 2023, both without prejudice, on the ground that the plaintiffs had not tied general PFAS testing to the specific products they bought.14Bloomberg Law. Coty Gets Dismissal of CoverGirl Mascara Hidden PFAS Lawsuit
Partner James Bilsborrow was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in Jo Aronstein et al. v. Kenvue Inc. et al., a class action in the District of New Jersey alleging PFAS in Band-Aid adhesive bandages.15Weitz & Luxenberg. PFAS Consumer Goods Judge Michael A. Shipp dismissed that case in February 2026, ruling that the plaintiffs had not shown they were harmed.16Law360. J&J Beats Proposed Class Action Over Band-Aid PFAS
Which PFAS Cases the Firm Is and Isn’t Taking
Weitz & Luxenberg’s PFAS practice page identifies kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, liver damage, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and immune system problems as conditions potentially linked to PFAS exposure, and says the firm has handled multiple PFOS and PFOA injury cases.17Weitz & Luxenberg. PFOA and PFOS Water Contamination One boundary matters for anyone calling in: the firm is no longer accepting new AFFF firefighting-foam cases.1Weitz & Luxenberg. Firefighting Foam Pollution
Two other limits are worth understanding even though they aren’t the firm’s own policy. The 3M and DuPont/Chemours MDL settlements pay public water systems, not individual households or private well owners.18PFAS Water Settlement. 3M Frequently Asked Questions And individual injury claims in PFAS litigation generally require proof of at least six cumulative months of exposure (typically from 1990 to the present) plus a qualifying diagnosis such as kidney cancer, testicular cancer, liver cancer, thyroid cancer, or ulcerative colitis. Statutes of limitations vary by state and can run as short as one or two years from diagnosis.19Drugwatch. PFAS Water Contamination Lawsuits
Who Runs the Firm’s PFAS Docket
James Bilsborrow, a partner since 2011, co-chairs the Environmental, Toxic Tort & Consumer Protection group and has been the lead attorney on most of the firm’s PFAS matters. He served as co-lead class counsel in both Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh and holds leadership appointments in several other mass torts, including the Norfolk Southern East Palestine derailment litigation, which produced a $600 million class settlement in April 2024.20Weitz & Luxenberg. James Bilsborrow
The firm itself was founded in 1986 by Perry Weitz and Arthur Luxenberg, is headquartered at 700 Broadway in New York City, and reports roughly $26 billion in total verdicts and settlements across all practice areas.21Weitz & Luxenberg. Our History Before PFAS, it served as lead counsel in a $423 million settlement with a dozen major oil companies over MTBE contamination of 153 public water systems across 17 states, litigated in federal court in Manhattan with Robert Gordon among the lead attorneys; that deal also included a 30-year cleanup program for contaminated wells.22The New York Times. Oil Companies Settle MTBE Contamination Case