Camp Lejeune Kidney Cancer Lawsuit Goes Before Judge, as Settlement Talks Continue

First bench trial is currently underway before a North Carolina federal judge, which could significantly influence any potential settlement agreements.

A federal court in North Carolina is hosting the first Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuit trial, involving claims by a man diagnosed with chronic kidney disease after living on the base for only four years.

The U.S. government faces about half a million administrative claims and lawsuits from veterans, workers and families who lived and worked on the North Carolina U.S. Marine training base between the mid-1950s and late 1980s, claiming they suffered a wide array of cancers and other ailments after being exposed to the heavily chemical-laced water on the base.

Individuals filed the complaints during a two-year window from August 2022 through August 2024, following passage of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA), which promised financial compensation for individuals diagnosed with ailments linked to the chemicals that had contaminated water on the base for decades. However, critics say the government has slow-walked and avoided resolution of a large number of claims.

In September 2023, the government announced an elective settlement option for Camp Lejeune lawsuits, but that option has resulted in very few claims being resolved.

The lawsuits have been overseen by four different U.S. District Judges in the Eastern District of North Carolina, including Richard E. Myers II, Terrence W. Boyle, Louise W. Flanagan and James C. Dever III. The judges have worked over the last couple years to prepare a series of trials involving different categories of injuries to serve as bellwether trials to see how juries respond to evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

Camp Lejeune Bellwether Trials

The judges established a Camp Lejeune bellwether lawsuit Track 1 criteria in October 2023, in which the parties selected a group of 100 cases to go through early discovery involving the following five categories of injuries:

• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Leukemia
• Parkinson’s disease
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

That list was later narrowed to 25 claims, including five from each category. The cases will be resolved through a series of bench trials, the first of which began on Monday, October 26 involving claims by Frank Mousser, of Texas, who indicates his kidney cancer is the result of four years of exposure to the tainted water on the base.

Camp Lejeune Kidney Cancer Lawsuit

Mousser’s original complaint (PDF) was filed in March 2023, indicating he served on the base from October 1982 through September 1986. He notes that the government acknowledges that the base’s water was contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), which has been linked to an increased risk of kidney cancer.

His attorneys filed a Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law (PDF) on October 19 ahead of the trial, calling for the judges to decide in Mousser’s favor.

“On August 25, 2020, at age 57, Mr. Mousser was found to have a 3.7 cm mass within his right kidney, which was diagnosed as a high-grade papillary upper tract urothelial carcinoma. On October 20, 2020, surgeons removed Mr. Mousser’s right kidney, its ureter, and a small cuff of his bladder, then filled his bladder with a chemotherapy drug to reduce the risk of recurrence.”

– Frank Mousser v. United States of America

On October 23, plaintiffs counsel also filed an administrative motion (PDF) to conduct a census of all remaining cases, which they say will help the parties reach a global resolution to the litigation. This would give both sides an accurate representation of what a global settlement would entail.

The outcomes of Mousser’s bench trial will not be binding on the other Camp Lejeune lawsuits, but is specifically being held early in hopes that the outcome will lead to a settlement agreement to resolve all of the pending lawsuits and administrative claims.

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