Published Philadelphia Inquirer
By Tom Avril and Jennifer Moroz
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
A mediated deal covers 69 families that blamed companies for their children's illnesses. Suits are pending in separate cases.
A group of 69 families in Toms River, N.J., settled their claims against three companies that the families blamed for causing cancer in their children, lawyers for both sides said yesterday.
The mediated settlement came just five days before New Jersey health officials were to release a study on whether the cancers could be attributed to polluted water. Attorneys for both sides said the timing of their announcement was coincidental.
Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and the companies - Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp., Union Carbide Corp., and United Water Resources Inc. - did not admit fault.
One attorney for the families said the amounts varied in each case, depending on the health of the child. The settlement does not cover medical checkups for the children, some of whom have recovered, but a separate fund was established to cover costs in the event they suffer a recurrence, said the lawyer, Steven Fineman of New York.
In Dover Township, the Ocean County municipality that includes Toms River, 90 children were found to have various types of cancer between 1979 and 1995, in a population that statisticians estimated could be expected to have had 67 cases. Since the original cases, 28 more children there have been found to have cancer, the families said. Sixteen of the 118 children have died.
One high-profile lawyer in the case was Jan Schlictmann, whose efforts in a Woburn, Mass., case were depicted in the book and movie A Civil Action. Schlictmann urged the Toms River families to take the unusual route of having the claim mediated without suing.
A separate group of Toms River families took the more traditional approach of filing lawsuits, which are pending.
Several of the families involved in yesterday's mediated settlement said they were satisfied, but they were reluctant to claim total victory.
Among them was Bruce Anderson, whose son Michael, 20, was found to have a rare form of leukemia when he was 10. Anderson said it was difficult to know whether the money his family will receive will make a difference.
"It's tough to answer that," said Anderson, 49, who has lived his entire life in the Toms River area. "I stopped counting my son's medical bills at a million dollars. You just don't know what the road ahead will be like."
The settlement is significant because it sheds more light on the situation, said Anderson, who runs a Web site (www.tr-teach.org) that seeks to inform the public about community environmental hazards.
"I think this is a positive step, and other communities can learn from it," he said. "If we can prevent one other child from getting cancer, it's worth it."
Linda Gillick, whose son Michael, 22, suffers from cancer of the nervous system, said the settlement was a good move.
"I'm glad it's all done," she said. "It brings some closure to the part of the families working along with the attorneys and the different companies. They no longer have to think about going into court and testifying and opening up old wounds."
Asked whether the money the Gillicks are to receive will be sufficient to cover Michael's expenses, she said: "If he lives for any length of time, and my husband and I should pass away, we want to make sure that he will be taken care of. . . . We're hoping it will" be enough.
The families maintain that the cancers were caused by pollutants in their water generated by Ciba and a contractor hired by Union Carbide. The chemicals involved were used in the manufacture of epoxies, resins and dyestuffs.
Both companies are participating in the cleanup of Superfund sites in Toms River; both deny the contamination had a health impact through the local water supply.
In the Civil Action case, Schlictmann went bankrupt litigating a case against companies accused of polluting water in Woburn. He now preaches mediation, which he argues is less expensive, less traumatic, and more suitable for shedding light on the dangers of toxic pollutants.
"It's absolutely historic, unprecedented, and it offers hope," Schlictmann said in a telephone interview. "Woburn was a war that went on for nine years. . . . [The Toms River approach] really is to help the families heal from this tragedy."
"These are children and families that have been extremely traumatized," said lawyer Esther Berezofsky, based in Philadelphia and Cherry Hill, who also represented the families. "We wanted to see if there was a way they could avoid the second trauma of litigation."
The mediator in the Toms River case was Eric Green, who last month helped Microsoft Corp. resolve its antitrust battle with the U.S. government.
"It is a much more innovative and exciting use of mediation than any other case I've been involved in, including Microsoft," Green said. "What made it stand out was that the lawyers all agreed to stay out of court, to have a non-adversarial, true scientific dialogue. The goal wasn't necessarily to get a settlement. It was to get answers."
Published on December 14, 2001
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