Press Release

Wiley Rein Secures Major Victory for Wireless Carriers and Equipment Manufacturers in Cases Alleging Cell Phone Emissions Cause Injury

August 27, 2007

Washington, DC - A team of Wiley Rein communications attorneys led by Andrew G. McBride and Joshua S. Turner recently secured a major victory in a set of consolidated cases involving allegations of injury caused by radiofrequency emissions from wireless devices and systems.  In Murray v. Motorola, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia dismissed a number of tort claims brought by several plaintiffs against many key players in the wireless industry, including claims for fraud and misrepresentation, strict liability, negligence and failure to warn. 

In its ruling, the court explained that such claims are preempted under the doctrines of express preemption, conflict preemption and field preemption, stating that, "this Court concludes that the Motion to Dismiss has merit and that all of the Complaints must be dismissed with prejudice.  There is only one reason for the dismissal, i.e., that the claims are preempted as a matter of law.  This is not a close question.  Having found that multiple alternative preemption doctrines are controlling, this Court has no discretion to allow the claims to proceed any further." 

This victory is an important one not only because of the breadth of the Court's ruling on preemption, but also because there are numerous similar cases presently winding through the state and federal court systems.  Wiley Rein served as lead counsel for a group of wireless carriers and manufacturers in the cases, including Verizon Wireless and Nokia.

Read Time: 1 min

Related Professionals

Contact

Sarah Richmond
Director of Communications
202.719.4423
srichmond@wiley.law 

Jump to top of page

Wiley Rein LLP Cookie Preference Center

Your Privacy

When you visit our website, we use cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. For more information about how we use Cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Always Active

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. These cookies may only be disabled by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functional Cookies

Always Active

Some functions of the site require remembering user choices, for example your cookie preference, or keyword search highlighting. These do not store any personal information.

Form Submissions

Always Active

When submitting your data, for example on a contact form or event registration, a cookie might be used to monitor the state of your submission across pages.

Performance Cookies

Performance cookies help us improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage. We access and process information from these cookies at an aggregate level.

Powered by Firmseek