Texas Federal Court Severs Claims of 20 Plaintiffs in Benzene Case Against Safety-Kleen

DALLAS –– A Texas federal court has severed the claims of 20 plaintiffs asserting benzene claims against Safety-Kleen Systems Inc., finding that they “lack the necessary aggregate of operative facts to constitute a series of transactions or occurrences.”

In the Oct. 7 order, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas concluded that the relevant facts among the underlying claims “vary widely.”

“Each Plaintiff claims to have been exposed to at least one of fifteen different Safety-Kleen solvents while employed at Carrier,” the court wrote. “Based on these allegations, it is possible that no two Plaintiffs were exposed …