No mass lawsuits yet against mobile firms
By Reuters staff
29 December 2000
U.S. lawyer Peter Angelos's firm has denied that it has already formulated a plan to file a series of actions against mobile phone companies next year, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Angelos was reported by Britain's Times newspaper on Thursday to be planning to launch 10 claims on behalf of U.S. brain tumor victims against handset manufacturers, mobile network operators and fixed-line phone companies.
Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile operator, would be named in nearly all of the actions, the newspaper said.
Although the Times report achieved prominence on Thursday, the FT said it had emerged earlier this month that Angelos - a veteran of successful mass legal actions against asbestos and tobacco companies - had started to train his sights on the potential health risks of using mobile handsets.
Angelos had yet to start any legal cases and his son, Louis Angelos, denied this week that their law firm had already formulated a plan to file a series of actions against wireless companies next year, the FT said.
However, the fact that Angelos had turned his attention to wireless companies should have set alarm bells ringing in the mobile communications world, the newspaper said.
It said that with nearly $1 billion due to his firm from its involvement in litigation against the tobacco industry, Angelos would have the sort of resources needed to support a nationwide legal challenge in the United States.
Earlier this month, his firm emerged as a co-counsel on the biggest case yet brought against over the health issue, a $800 million claim filed last August by Baltimore neurologist Christopher Newman, the FT said.
The case was brought against Motorola, the largest U.S. handset manufacturer, as well as Verizon Wireless and SBC Communications and two U.S. industry trade associations.
There has been concern among some mobile phone users that radiation from handsets could cause brain tumors, despite research that has failed to find any link.
Britain's Vodafone Group Plc, which owns 45 percent of Verizon, said UK government-sponsored research published this year gave mobile phones a clean bill of health.
Company spokesman Mike Caldwell said he did not know of any legal cases that named Vodafone directly, but it would defend itself very vigorously if necessary.
Vodafone's shares dropped 1.9 percent at the close on Thursday after publication of the Times report. |
