B & W if one of the very few, even to reach the trial stage
The Babcock & Wilcox's recent payment of $ 52.5 million to hundreds of claimants in the valley of Kiska is among a handful of cases, nuclear contamination across the country to be tried, much less to reach settlement personal injury and wrongful death, according to academics and lawyers.
The defendants, B & W and the Atlantic Richfield Co., collectively, controls have reduced a total of more than $ 80 million to about 365 applicants during the 14-years lawsuit. A $ 27.5 million settlement with ARCO came in February 2008 and in other institutions that have achieved less in the millions.
PER
The case was filed in Federal Court in 1994 alleging that radioactive emissions from two factories processing nuclear fuel in Apollo and Parks Township caused disease, death and property damage. By Mary Ann Thomas
The plants have been operated by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMECA) and its successor, the Atlantic Richfield Co. and Babcock & Wilcox to produce nuclear fuel and other products used in nuclear power and nuclear weapons from 1957 to 1986.
"These cases were always difficult to go to court and for a long time," said Bob Alverez, a senior researcher at the Institute of Political Studies in Washington, DC Alverez is also a former political adviser to the Ministry of Energy Secretary and an Assistant Secretary-Deputy National Security and the environment.
Louise Roselle, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a case in Washington state, said a common problem in obtaining such cases, the giant of litigation.
"Normally, the cost of litigation is a factor that the defendant believed," said Roselle, whose company is based in Cincinnati. "At some point, they say," it costs too much money. Why not settle? "
"When the public goes up against the federal government, with its ability to spend taxpayers' money to fight against the taxpayer, you do not have the normal (financial) on the litigation."
The Apollo is unique in court because it is a case where taxpayers are not put on the hook, "Alverez said.
For most of these cases, contractors are exempt from liability because of their contracts with the federal government.
Wrongful death claim unusual
The Apollo is unusual because in addition to property damage, some claimants have alleged wrongful death and injury.
A famous case of injury to Karen Silkwood, who worked for the Kerr-McGee plutonium fuels plant in Crescent, Okla. She is complaining of lax security controls at the factory and worked with his union to document and expose plant conditions presumed dangerous.
When she died in a car accident, his estate sued the company for plutonium contamination in the body. They finally opted for $ 1.38 million.
Case of injury caused by nuclear contamination are difficult to prove, according to Steve Wodka, Silkwood's representative to the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union and a lawyer in Little Silver, NJ
Wodka visited Apollo in the 1990s.
"The thing that struck me when I arrived there, there were only plants at the bottom of a valley, and people lived on the hills up the valley," Wodka says. "There was a very logic of these programs, for people to be exposed to emissions.
"This is not a plant to the campaign as Kerr-McGee in Oklahoma, with nothing around it."
When Leechburg activist Patty Ameno contacted Karen's father, Bill Silkwood advice, he sent her to Wodka. Wodka reported that the case was too big, with too many applicants. Thus, he called Dallas lawyer Fred Baron, who had the means to make the prosecution.
Difficult to prove a link
"I can not think of any case quite like it," said Wodka. One of the problems with personal injury cases alleging cancer nuclear contamination is that it is not one "signature" radiation cancer.
"There are a variety of cancers that are linked to radiation," said Wodka, but they have all known causes other than radiation.
"It was the work of lawyers and experts to demonstrate more than likely that a cancer to a particular person was caused by his exposure and emissions from a plant. This is a rise .
Arjun Makhijani, an expert witness for cases Apollo applicants who reviewed the data on releases of uranium to the plant in Apollo, said the reconstruction of public exposure is difficult.
"The records of these plants in the years 1950 and 1960 are very poor," he said. "When we reviewed the data, we were able to say that emissions were more than this number, but the data have not been there for the upper limits," he said.
Regardless of the severity of trying the case, Wodka said: "This is a tremendous result for the people there. People in Western Pennsylvania are extremely patient. "
Baron, lawyer most responsible for the negotiations to settle $ 54.5 million, did not live to see the final settlement with B & W approved by a federal judge April 16.
The defendants, B & W and the Atlantic Richfield Co., collectively, controls have reduced a total of more than $ 80 million to about 365 applicants during the 14-years lawsuit. A $ 27.5 million settlement with ARCO came in February 2008 and in other institutions that have achieved less in the millions.
PER
The case was filed in Federal Court in 1994 alleging that radioactive emissions from two factories processing nuclear fuel in Apollo and Parks Township caused disease, death and property damage. By Mary Ann Thomas
The plants have been operated by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMECA) and its successor, the Atlantic Richfield Co. and Babcock & Wilcox to produce nuclear fuel and other products used in nuclear power and nuclear weapons from 1957 to 1986.
"These cases were always difficult to go to court and for a long time," said Bob Alverez, a senior researcher at the Institute of Political Studies in Washington, DC Alverez is also a former political adviser to the Ministry of Energy Secretary and an Assistant Secretary-Deputy National Security and the environment.
Louise Roselle, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a case in Washington state, said a common problem in obtaining such cases, the giant of litigation.
"Normally, the cost of litigation is a factor that the defendant believed," said Roselle, whose company is based in Cincinnati. "At some point, they say," it costs too much money. Why not settle? "
"When the public goes up against the federal government, with its ability to spend taxpayers' money to fight against the taxpayer, you do not have the normal (financial) on the litigation."
The Apollo is unique in court because it is a case where taxpayers are not put on the hook, "Alverez said.
For most of these cases, contractors are exempt from liability because of their contracts with the federal government.
Wrongful death claim unusual
The Apollo is unusual because in addition to property damage, some claimants have alleged wrongful death and injury.
A famous case of injury to Karen Silkwood, who worked for the Kerr-McGee plutonium fuels plant in Crescent, Okla. She is complaining of lax security controls at the factory and worked with his union to document and expose plant conditions presumed dangerous.
When she died in a car accident, his estate sued the company for plutonium contamination in the body. They finally opted for $ 1.38 million.
Case of injury caused by nuclear contamination are difficult to prove, according to Steve Wodka, Silkwood's representative to the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union and a lawyer in Little Silver, NJ
Wodka visited Apollo in the 1990s.
"The thing that struck me when I arrived there, there were only plants at the bottom of a valley, and people lived on the hills up the valley," Wodka says. "There was a very logic of these programs, for people to be exposed to emissions.
"This is not a plant to the campaign as Kerr-McGee in Oklahoma, with nothing around it."
When Leechburg activist Patty Ameno contacted Karen's father, Bill Silkwood advice, he sent her to Wodka. Wodka reported that the case was too big, with too many applicants. Thus, he called Dallas lawyer Fred Baron, who had the means to make the prosecution.
Difficult to prove a link
"I can not think of any case quite like it," said Wodka. One of the problems with personal injury cases alleging cancer nuclear contamination is that it is not one "signature" radiation cancer.
"There are a variety of cancers that are linked to radiation," said Wodka, but they have all known causes other than radiation.
"It was the work of lawyers and experts to demonstrate more than likely that a cancer to a particular person was caused by his exposure and emissions from a plant. This is a rise .
Arjun Makhijani, an expert witness for cases Apollo applicants who reviewed the data on releases of uranium to the plant in Apollo, said the reconstruction of public exposure is difficult.
"The records of these plants in the years 1950 and 1960 are very poor," he said. "When we reviewed the data, we were able to say that emissions were more than this number, but the data have not been there for the upper limits," he said.
Regardless of the severity of trying the case, Wodka said: "This is a tremendous result for the people there. People in Western Pennsylvania are extremely patient. "
Baron, lawyer most responsible for the negotiations to settle $ 54.5 million, did not live to see the final settlement with B & W approved by a federal judge April 16.
0 comment:
Post a Comment