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Kinder Morgan Defendant in Fallon Childhood Cancer Case

New lawsuit filed in Fallon childhood cancer case

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200910240600/NEWS/91024033...

BY FRANK X. MULLEN JR. • fmullen@rgj.com • October 24, 2009

An Incline Village doctor has filed a lawsuit on behalf of an 11-year-old Fallon boy who died of brain cancer this month, alleging that the child's disease was caused by exposure to jet fuel in Churchill County.

The suit filed by Dr. Alan S. Levin, who is also a lawyer, is similar to three federal lawsuits he filed in connection with alleged fuel exposures and the Fallon leukemia cluster. That disease outbreak sickened 17 children and killed three from 1997 to 2004.

The previous suits, also alleging that jet fuel and other environmental contaminants caused cancers, were dismissed in federal court.

"The previous cases were dismissed solely on procedural grounds and not on the scientific merits," Levin said. "In this (state) case, we've covered every procedural hole and the scientific evidence will be heard."

Named as defendants in the lawsuit, which alleges personal injury, negligence and fraud, are the city of Fallon, Fallon Airmotive, ExxonMobil Corp., URS Corp. and Kinder-Morgan Energy Partners, the firm that owns a 67-mile-long pipeline that brings fuel to the Fallon Naval Air Station.

ExxonMobil officials in Houston said the firm doesn't comment on pending litigation. A representative of Fallon Airmotive said the company had no comment. The other defendants did not return calls for comment.

The plaintiff is April Jacobs, the mother of Ryan Brune, 11, who died Oct. 2, four days after the complaint was filed. The suit alleges that both of Ryan's parents were exposed to jet fuel at their jobs in Fallon and "were never warned that carcinogenic compounds could be taken home" on their clothing.

The suit also alleges that the chemicals are associated with the same type of DNA mutations found in some of the patients in the leukemia cluster. The suit contends the defendants were responsible for exposing Brune to fuel chemicals in his environment and in the clothing of his parents.

The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.

"One remedy will be for the funding of the Ryan Brune Memorial Institute of Childhood Cancer," Levin said, adding that he hopes the institute would be in Fallon and affiliated with a Nevada higher education institution.