Delta employees seek redo in suit claiming toxic Lands' End uniforms caused illness

CHICAGO (CN) — A class of Delta Airlines employees argued Thursday that a federal court was wrong to rule in favor of retailer Lands’ End, which the employees say provided them with toxin-ridden uniforms that caused rashes, hair loss, breathing difficulties and low white blood cell counts.

The uniforms “bled dye and harmful substances onto plaintiffs’ bodies and property,” a process called “crocking,” according to the group of over 600 Delta Airlines employees. They asked the Seventh Circuit to reverse a Wisconsin federal judge’s 2023 order granting summary judgment to Lands’ End because the class was unable to show whether the uniforms were defective and whether those uniforms caused their personal injuries.

Bryan Gowdy, an attorney for the employees, the trial court ignored evidence that showed the link between the uniforms and his clients’ injuries.

“Take a careful look at the briefs. In some ways, they’re ships passing in the night, and I would submit that is because Lands’ End is not confronting the evidence that was in the record,” said Gowdy, of the firm Creed & Gowdy.

He pointed to testimony from epidemiologist Michael Freeman, who opined that exposure to chemicals from the dye and finishes in the uniforms very plausibly caused the plaintiffs’ injuries, based on his analysis of employee questionnaires. The workers’ responses made it clear they suffered acute injuries due to the defects in the uniforms, Freeman testified.

The panel of judges asked Gowdy several times if there was any evidence that the uniforms were unreasonably dangerous.

“If a uniform gets you sick —” Gowdy started to answer, before U.S. Circuit Judge Doris Pryor chimed in, “That’s causation. We’re wanting to talk about the defect.”

Gowdy responded that the defect and causation are related.

“If my coffee machine makes cold coffee, well, that’s a defect and I get my money back, but I’m probably not going to get hurt from that. But if my coffee machine makes coffee that’s 250 degrees and I get hurt, well, that’s unreasonably dangerous,” he said.

Gwyn Williams, a Latham & Watkins attorney for Lands’ End, called the class’ claim a post hoc theory.

The clothing company wrote in its brief that “even if there had been just one uniform item at issue, plaintiffs still had no evidence of a common defect as to any individual item. Proof that a garment (or particular type of garment) crocked does not necessarily prove the existence of a defect in that garment, much less in all others.”

Gowdy focused on the fact that Freeman and several other experts’ testimony was absent from the summary judgment, but Williams said that was because Freeman based his conclusion around a seldom-used algorithm for determining causation.

Williams said other experts were clear that they would not determine causation of a particular item without having access to someones’ medical records.

“Freeman didn’t even look at those medical records,” she said.

The best evidence of Delta’s defective uniforms causing injuries, Gowdy said, was “what happened to our clients.”

Joining Pryor on the panel were U.S. Circuit Judges Candace Jackson-Akiwumi and Nancy Maldanado. The trio of Joe Biden appointees did not indicate when they will rule.

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