GADSDEN
Fresh off a jury’s verdict that a chemical company poisoned an Alabama town with PCBs for decades, Circuit Judge Joel Laird pushed hard for an agreement Monday to resolve thousands of remaining claims.
Laird ordered nine top executives of Monsanto Co., its spinoff Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia Corp. to attend a meeting with lawyers Saturday to discuss settling the cases and avoid more lengthy trials.
He also held both sides in contempt for failing to produce documents in the massive litigation.
Jurors last week held the companies liable for the pollution in 17 representative cases filed by Anniston residents who contend the pollution damaged their property and endangered their health. While the jurors also decided on Monday that the pollution was a public nuisance, they have yet to determine how much should be paid in damages.
Also remaining to be heard are additional claims: The judge said 44 should go to trial before the same jury immediately.
Laird issued an order saying both sides had failed to make a “good faith attempt” to resolve the case in spite of a previous order mandating settlement talks.
The judge also cited both sides for contempt for failing to turn over needed documents and move the cases along. “You can at least expect a daily fine until I get the information I asked for at least two weeks ago,” Laird said.
Punctuating his frustration after three years of pretrial wrangling, Laird ordered the companies to turn over copies of medical files on some 3,000 people first thing Tuesday. And he ordered attorneys to take a sworn statement from a real estate appraiser working for the residents in open court rather than waiting to do it in a law office, as is typical.
“I think the simple fact of this case is that neither side thought we would ever get to this point, and here we are,” said Laird, his voice rising.
The judge added angrily: “When are you going to realize this isn’t just a game we are playing here? This is a case, a case we started more than seven weeks ago.”
The lead attorney representing residents, Donald Stewart, threw up his hands when asked by a reporter about the chances for an agreement. “It’s up to them,” he said.
The companies’ lead lawyer, Jere White, had no immediate comment on chances for a settlement.
Jurors ruled Friday that Monsanto polluted Anniston with PCBs, a verdict that could expose the company and its two co-defendants to millions of dollars in damages.
Solutia is Monsanto’s corporate spinoff that now operates the plant, and Pharmacia Corp. owns 85 percent of Monsanto.
The verdict was the first from a jury over the PCB contamination in Anniston, located about 60 miles east of Birmingham.
Monsanto operated a plant that produced PCBs in the east Alabama town for about four decades until the early 1970s, when the chemical was banned as a suspected cancer-causing agent.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used mainly as an insulating fluid in electrical transformers.
Some 3,500 Anniston residents and business owners originally sued the companies, claiming Monsanto knowingly contaminated their community for decades with PCBs. Their claims will be taken up in groups, in a succession of trials.
Also, a Montgomery law firm says it has about 15,000 clients suing in federal court.
Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor and several local district attorneys filed motions Monday requesting to join the lawsuit as monetary damages are decided, although they didn’t participate during the jury trial. They claim the state has suffered a “public nuisance” by the release of PCBs into its waters.
More than $80 million was previously paid in two legal settlements over the pollution, and Solutia says it has spent another $30 million cleaning up the community.
