Jan. 12 Deadline Proposed for Filing Amended Lead-Exposure Case vs. Verizon

Plaintiff Greg Bostard, the former Comcast utility pole worker who’s suing Verizon for his years of exposure to Verizon's lead-sheathed telecom cables, proposes jointly with Verizon a Jan. 12 deadline for Bostard to file his first amended complaint, said their stipulation Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-08564) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Camden. Jan. 12 is Bostard’s current deadline for filing his opposition to Verizon’s Nov. 13 motion to dismiss (see 2311140006). The parties propose a March 12 deadline for Verizon to file any motion to dismiss Bostard’s amended complaint, said the stipulation. Bostard’s response in opposition to the motion to dismiss would be due May 13, and Verizon’s reply in support of the motion to dismiss would be due June 4, it said. Bostard’s class action seeks Verizon's funding of his medical monitoring “to permit early detection of future lead-related conditions,” and “abatement” to remove and properly dispose of the lead-sheathed cables from the utility poles. The New Jersey resident says he scaled utility poles for Comcast for 29 years. All the while, he alleges, he was in direct and regular contact with Verizon’s lead-sheathed cables and ingested and inhaled lead from them. Verizon’s motion to dismiss asserts that despite Bostard’s “lengthy career,” he doesn’t allege that lead “has ever been detected in his body or that he has ever suffered any lead-related harm.” Bostard’s complaint also can’t account for why he waited decades “to file suit over a well-known occupational circumstance for which he was entitled to safety training from Comcast,” said Verizon.