Thomas J. Tobin is a partner with Gordon & Rees, LLP, working primarily out of the firm's Southern California offices. Mr. Tobin is a member of the firm's Toxic Tort and Environmental Practice Group and the Commercial Litigation Group. His practice focuses on chemical exposure litigation, products liability, environmental litigation, and business litigation. Mr. Tobin represents a variety of clients against claims of personal injury as well as property and business damage from alleged exposure to chemicals (including benzene, silica, asbestos, diacetyl, carbon monoxide, pesticides, herbicides and many others), toxic waste, and other substances. Mr. Tobin also defends clients in litigation involving federal and state environmental statutes.
For the past several years, Mr. Tobin has served as a Contributing Editor to several Harris-Martin Publications on Silica Litigation, Asbestos Litigation, Benzene, and "Pesticides, Solvents & Fumes." He also is on the Editorial Board of the National Legal Review's Silica Litigation News. He has also given presentations on topics involving toxic tort litigation to national audiences.
Mr. Tobin received his J.D. from George Washington University in 1996. While in law school, Mr. Tobin completed a two-year internship with the Environmental Law Division of the United States Army Legal Services Agency where he provided consultation to the Army on a wide array of environmental issues including the Clean Air Act, RCRA, CERCLA, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. Mr. Tobin also served as a judicial extern for United States District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster.
Mr. Tobin graduated Cum Laude in Classics from Princeton University in 1993. He was awarded the John Arthur Hanson Prize for Excellence in Latin in 1990. He completed a four-year Army ROTC scholarship while at Princeton. He was also a pitcher on the baseball team.
Mr. Tobin is currently a member of the State Bar of California, licensed to practice before all the courts of California. He is a Barrister Member of the American Inns of Court (Welsh Chapter) and an active member of the Defense Research Institute, the San Diego County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. Mr. Tobin served as the President of the Princeton Club of San Diego from 2001-2006, is currently a member of Princeton's Alumni Schools Committee, and is membership committee chairman of the Francis Parker School Alumni Council. He also was active in the United States Army Reserves, achieving the rank of Captain.
Representative Experience
Mr. Tobin recently obtained a favorable result for a national solvent manufacturer in United States District Court in Massachusetts in a trace benzene case where plaintiff alleged he developed Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukemia, as a result of exposure to various kinds of petroleum-based products. After a multi-day evidentiary hearing in the matter of Milward v. Acuity Specialty Products Group, Inc. et al., United States District Court of Massachusetts Civil Action No. 07-11944-GAO, where both sides presented expert testimony on the issue of general causation (whether benzene is a recognized risk factor for this particular disease), Judge George A. O’Toole concluded in his Opinion and Order that plaintiff’s proffered expert testimony is inadmissible because it did not meet the standard set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 509 U.S. 579 (1993), and it progeny. This may result in the ultimate dismissal of the matter, as plaintiffs are unable to establish a causal link between the alleged disease and chemicals at issue. This ruling may also serve as a deterrent for plaintiffs claiming a link between trace benzene exposure and certain diseases.
Mr. Tobin recently secured a significant victory in the California Court of Appeal for the Second District. In an unpublished opinion in Navarrette v. Armite Laboratories, Inc. (Case No. B203997, April 20, 2009) the Court affirmed a trial court’s order dismissing a toxic tort complaint after sustaining demurrers on statute of limitations and causation grounds without leave to amend. The case involved claims of injury from exposure to mixed dust and silica by more than 200 former employees of the Price Pfister foundry in Pacoima, California. Defendants were 78 manufacturers and suppliers of products used at the foundry. Plaintiffs claimed a wide array of injuries, including silicosis, tongue cancer, and hypertension. The ruling is significant for two reasons. First, it disposed of a large number of potential claims at an early stage of litigation. Second, the substance of the ruling was significant because the Court enforced the pleading requirement for delaying the accrual of the statute of limitations-namely, that plaintiffs seeking the benefit of delayed accrual of the statute of limitations must plead specific facts in the complaint to show the reasonableness of their delay. The victory was covered in the September 2, 2009 issue of The Voice, the weekly newsletter of the Defense Research Institute.
Publications
Leap of Faith: The Increasingly Murky Line Between Theory And Hypothesis in the Association Between Benzene & Non-Hodgkin?s Lymphoma
Litigation Watch: Benzene, October 2006 (Harris-Martin Publications)
The Sophisticated User and Its Possible Comeback in California
Columns Silica Magazine, September 2006 (Harris-Martin Publications)
Recent Ruling in Ohio Incites New Welding Rod Lawsuits in California
Gordon & Rees Environmental Update, August 2005
Recent Bush Administration Action Could Signal Turning of Tide in the Scope of the FIFRA Preemption Defense
Columns Magazine, January 2004 (Harris-Martin Publications)
The Closer You Look, The Less You May Know
The Ever-Expanding Universe of Interstitial Lung Disease
Columns Magazine, Winter 2003 (Harris-Martin Publications)
Silicosis Litigation: A Potential Sleeping Giant
Columns Magazine, Fall 2002 (Harris-Martin Publications)
Presentations
Silica Litigation: Past, Present & Future (Spring 2005) National Conference of International Packaged Concrete Manufacturer's Association
Mixed Dust Litigation (Fall 2003) National Conference on Silica Litigation - Harris Martin Publishing
