Twenty-Two Years and Counting
microwavenews.com, May 4, 2023, Last updated August 31, 2023
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| Michael Murray and his daughter Alicia* (photo from Murray family via the Sun-Sentinel) |
Judge Alfred Irving Jr. of the Washington DC Superior Court issued the ruling on April 25 in a set of 13 cases collectively known as Murray v Motorola.
The Murray litigation has been going on for a long, long time —think Jarndyce. The original claim was filed more than 20 years ago. In November 2001, Mayer Morganroth and his son Jeffrey Morganroth sued Motorola on behalf of Michael Murray, a 34-year-old technician who had developed a malignant glioma after testing cell phones for Motorola (details in MWN, N/D01).
Over the next few months, new lawsuits were filed involving other plaintiff firms and corporate defendants. Thirteen of them were combined into Murray, and the Lundy law firm in Louisiana joined the Morganroths as co-counsel.
If past is prologue, there’s much more to come —if only because the stakes are so high. In 2015, the Wall Street Journal estimated that the 13 Murray lawsuits were seeking a combined total of close to $2 billion.
“We will be appealing,” Jeffrey Morganroth told Microwave News from his office near Detroit. “We’re disappointed, but we believe the Court got it wrong as a matter of fact and law in numerous respects.”
“Our experts are world-renowned and preeminent scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying and researching this critical public health issue,” he said.
“This is not the end of cell phone litigation,” Morganroth emphasized. “We are committed to making sure our clients get their day in court.”
Terry Dee of Winston & Strawn in Chicago, who represents Motorola and is the lead counsel for the defense, declined to comment. So did Tom Watson of Watson & Renner in Washington DC, who works for AT&T Wireless. They both referred my questions to CTIA. The wireless industry trade association is another of the many Murray defendants. Watson and Dee have been involved in EMF and RF litigation for decades.
In its statement, CTIA welcomed the decision, calling it “consistent with the views of health experts around the world, including the WHO, the U.S. FDA and the NIH.”
Dee did give Law.com an extensive interview in which he said that Irving’s decision confirms what Motorola has been saying for decades —that “cell phones are safe for consumer use.”
Law.com’s Litigation Daily featured Dee as the litigator of the week for his success in Murray and another cell phone case, Walker v Motorola in Louisiana. (The Lundy firm is representing Frank Walker, who is seeking compensation for his glioblastoma. The case was filed in April 2021; Walker died in December 2020.)
Motorola is just one of many defendants. They are a who’s who of big telecom, including Apple, AT&T, LG, Motorola, Qualcomm, Samsung and Verizon. Some 40 lawyers are protecting the industry’s interests in the Murray litigation.
Not surprisingly, the plaintiffs are not pleased with the outcome. “Irving’s decision is a serious disservice to public health,” Ellie Marks told me by email. Alan Marks, her husband, developed a brain tumor and also sued Motorola. His claim is one of the 13 lawsuits combined under the Murray umbrella.
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