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CASE BRIEFS

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
September 09, 2003

Insurer Must Defend Class Action Alleging Cell Phone Radiation

In Northern Insurance Company of New York v. Baltimore Business Communications, Inc., No. 02-1358, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 12318 (4th Cir., June 19, 2003), the Fourth Circuit recently held in an unpublished decision that an insurance carrier has a duty to defend a class action suit seeking to require a cell phone retailer to supply headsets for its products.

The insured is a defendant in a class action suit asserting that the insured and other defendants supplied, sold or leased cell phones that emitted dangerous levels of radiation. The complaint alleges that radiation emanating from cell phones causes biological injury at the cellular level when the phones are used without headsets and that 'the biological injury caused by the cell phones creates an increased health risk that the [defendants] could have eliminated or significantly mitigated by providing cell phone purchasers with headsets and appropriate warnings.' For each cause of action, the complaint seeks 'compensatory damages including but not limited to amounts necessary to purchase a [cell phone] headset ' for each class member.'

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