Isomedix favorably resolves ethylene oxide litigation
Client(s) Isomedix Operations, Inc.
Jones Day serves as lead counsel for Isomedix Operations, Inc., a commercial sterilization company, in multiple personal injury cases in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Plaintiffs allege cancers were caused by exposure to ethylene oxide emissions from a facility formerly owned by the client. Over three months from November 2024 to January 2025, the Firm successfully defended the commercial sterilization company in the first bellwether trial of a consolidated mass tort docket with 500+ pending individual plaintiffs’ cases. The first bellwether trial ended in a mistrial in January 2025, when one juror walked out of deliberations and the plaintiff refused to waive her right to a 12-member jury. Post-trial interviews with the remaining jurors confirmed that the remaining jurors were 10-1 in Isomedix’s favor at the time of the mistrial. Following the mistrial, the plaintiff sought to delay a retrial and ultimately the parties settled. Having demonstrated that it could and would successfully fight through trial, Isomedix subsequently entered into favorable global term sheets to create a settlement structure anticipated to resolve substantially all remaining ethylene oxide cases against it. Jones Day also successfully negotiated the individual settlements of all trial-set cases, resulting in settlement amounts for trial-set cases as low as $50,000.
Pamela Knobbe v. Isomedix Operations Inc., No. 2022-L-008574 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.)
