November 2, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A California jury found that the City of Modesto (“Modesto”) was not harmed by the presence of perchloroethylene (“PCE”), supplied to Acme Dry Cleaners (“Acme”) by Dow and PPG, in the city’s groundwater and awarded no damages to Modesto.

The lawsuit was brought in 1998 by Modesto and its sewage district, saying that Dow and PPG spent decades selling PCE to dry cleaners, contaminating the city’s soil and water, but with this newest ruling the jury ultimately decided that the presence of PCE in the groundwater beneath the public right-of-way adjacent to the former Acme site caused no harm to the city.

Congratulations to our Impact team members Ina Lim, Willow Yang, Jenny Phillips, Scott Perloff, Melissa Pomerantz, and the talented group of attorneys at Latham & Watkins, Alston & Bird, and Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. on their victory!

The cases are the City of Modesto et al. v. The Dow Chemical Co. et al., case numbers CGC-98-999345 and CGC-98-999643, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco.