Rulings overturned in Santa Rosa, California contaminated wells case

July 26, 2008 - A state appeals court has overturned much of a Sonoma County judge's ruling in a complex water contamination lawsuit filed by 32 Santa Rosa residents who say their wells were tainted with potentially cancer-causing chemicals in the 1990s.

The unanimous opinion, issued late Thursday by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, also reverses huge monetary sanctions against the plaintiffs' attorneys and sends the case back to Sonoma County Superior Court for further proceedings.

It also revives the case against one of the defendants, the former Optical Coating Laboratory Inc., which is now owned by JDSU in San Jose.

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