GenOn defeats putative class action alleging injury and damages resulting from coal ash deposit
Client(s) GenOn Holdings, Inc.
Jones Day successfully represented GenOn Energy, Inc. and a subsidiary in a putative class action lawsuit alleging the plaintiffs suffered bodily injury and property damage as a result of the deposit of coal ash near their Pennsylvania homes that had been shipped from various power plants. The Jones Day litigation and bankruptcy team, and separate bankruptcy counsel for GenOn, launched a two-track challenge to the suit.
On February 1, 2019, GenOn filed a motion in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas seeking an order that the plaintiffs' claims, though technically not pursued there, had been discharged in bankruptcy and that the plaintiffs' commencement and maintenance of the action violated the bankruptcy court's discharge order. On February 20, GenOn filed a motion to dismiss in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania premised on the fact that the plaintiffs' claims had been discharged in bankruptcy. On March 2, the bankruptcy court found that the plaintiffs' claims against GenOn had been discharged in bankruptcy and ordered that the plaintiffs dismiss their claims against GenOn with prejudice. On March 12, 2019, the district court dismissed the putative class claims with prejudice.
Rice, et al. v. FirstEnergy Corp., et al., No. 2-17-cv-00489 (W.D. Pa.)
