Response Due May 15 on ZTE Motion to Dismiss Unsafe Phones Complaint
U.S. District Judge James Cain for Western Louisiana in Lake Charles signed an electronic order Monday (docket 2:21-cv-00923) setting a May 15 deadline for the surviving wife and two sons of Frank Walker to respond to ZTE’s Oct. 17 motion…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
to dismiss their complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. ZTE’s reply is due May 22, said the order. The Walkers allege the defective phones Frank Walker used, plus the industry’s coverup of those phones, led to his death from brain cancer in 2020 because they exceeded the FCC’s specific absorption rate (SAR) limitations for how much RF radiation is absorbed into the human body. ZTE agreed Nov. 1 to stay the briefing on its motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction until the court resolved the motion from AT&T, Cricket, CTIA, Microsoft, Motorola and the Telecommunications Industry Association to dismiss the case because the Walkers’ claims are preempted by federal law (see 2211020028). Cain last Friday dismissed, on federal preemption grounds, all claims that the industry covered up information showing that many cellphones don’t comply with the SAR standard (see 2304230001). Not preempted, said Cain’s ruling, were the family’s claims under the Louisiana Products Liability Act that the phones Walker used were somehow defective in that they deviated from the federal SAR standard. In an electronic order Tuesday, Cain stayed all deadlines for the defendants other than ZTE until ZTE's motion to dismiss is resolved.