What happened: The day after Los Angeles County filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, accusing their product packaging of creating a public nuisance, a similar lawsuit against PepsiCo was dismissed in New York.

Tell me more: These lawsuits are the latest attempts to hijack public nuisance law to legislate through litigation, an overbroad and inappropriate use of the courts that has been dismissed by judges in the past.

• The judge in the New York case ruled it would run “contrary to every norm of established jurisprudence” to punish PepsiCo, because it was people, not the company, who ignored laws prohibiting littering.

In his own words: “While I can think of no reasonable person who does not believe in the imperatives of recycling and being better stewards of our environment, this does not give rise to phantom assertions of liability that do nothing to solve the problem that exists… The judicial system should not be burdened with predatory lawsuits that seek to impose punishment while searching for a crime.” –New York Supreme Court Justice Emilio Colaiacovo

Remember this? California filed a nuisance lawsuit against ExxonMobil in September for its role in plastics production.

TLR Thoughts: PepsiCo’s public nuisance rollercoaster—with one state-based public nuisance claim filed the day before a similar state-based claim is thrown out—is a glaring example of how a patchwork of state nuisance lawsuits can quickly become a quagmire for businesses operating around the country. The Legislature has a critical opportunity to stop this trend from taking hold in the Lone Star State.

Read the full California article here.

Read the full New York article here.