The BC Supreme Court recently confirmed the certification of a class action relating to Kimberly-Clark’s 2020 recall of its Cottonelle Flushable Wipes and Cottonelle Gentle Plus Flushable Wipes sold throughout Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. In its 2020 recall, Kimberly-Clark advised that some of the recalled products did not meet the company’s “high-quality standards” and “could show the presence” of the bacterium Pluralibacter gergoviae, which can cause infections, particularly to people with weakened immune systems. The class action was originally filed in October 2020.

In reasons for judgment issued orally on January 19, 2024, and now available on Slater Vecchio LLP’s website, the Court affirmed its August 28, 2023 ruling in Bowman v. Kimberly Clark Corporation, 2023 BCSC 1495 that the claims held by individuals in Canada for personal injury from using Kimberly Clark’s recalled Wipes are to be resolved through a class action.

“This judgment clarifies that there is indeed a certified class action lawsuit for persons residing anywhere in Canada. It remains Slater Vecchio LLP’s priority that persons who claim to have been harmed by these allegedly defective Cottonelle-branded products have access to justice,” says Saro Turner, a partner at Slater Vecchio LLP.

Additionally, the January 19 decision is important for class action law as it reinforces the finality of certification orders. When a court certifies a class action, only extraordinary and unanticipated changes in circumstances would merit reconsideration of such a decision.  The Court stated that statutory authority allowing reconsideration of a certification order “…does not mean that the moment a judge makes a certification order, the parties are permitted to reargue it or assert that the judge ought not [to] have made the order that the judge made. That is what appeals are for.”