On Tuesday, a motion for partial summary judgement was submitted to the District of Connecticut by Nestle Waters Inc. Nestle is currently the defendant in a class action lawsuit.
The motion stems from a lawsuit brought against them in August 2017. The plaintiffs accused Nestle of common-law fraud, breach of contract, and consumer protection violations and unfair and deceptive trade practices, claiming that the defendant falsely brands their Poland Springs water product as “spring water.”
The class involved in this suit are people in eight different northeastern states who have purchased Poland Springs for consumptive purposes any time after November 5, 2003. However, the defendant disagreed with this timeline and said that plaintiffs admitted within their complaint that all of their claims are subject to any applicable statutes of limitations.
The defendant argued the time period of these claims must be shortened to account for those statutes of limitations. In regards to the charges of common-law fraud, statutory consumer consumption, and unfair trade practices, those charges are subject to three year limitation periods and therefore would only include complaints that occurred within three years prior to the original filing on August 15, 2017.
As for the breach of contract charge, the defendant asserted that this charge is subject to a 4 year limitation period and should only include complaints that happened in those 4 years before the filing.
The defendant said the plaintiff is unable to prove that the statute of limitations has been tolled, and they should no longer be held accountable for any of the charges that occurred before the dates of August 15, 2013 and August 15 2014, for the first and second sets of charges respectively. They asked that the court make a ruling on this lack of merit on the part of the plaintiff.
The plaintiff is represented by Susman Godfrey. The defendant is represented by Orloff Lowenbach Stifelman & Siegel, Farella Braun + Martel, and Day Pitney.
