Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
Sixty-nine families of children stricken with cancer will share at least $13.27 million as part of a settlement reached last month after the families sued two chemical companies and Dover Township''s public water provider, according to a published report.
The figure was reported in yesterday''s Philadelphia Inquirer, which calculated it from court records that became public under a state law that requires all settlements with minors be approved by a judge. The agreement was approved yesterday by state Superior Court Judge Marina Corodemus, sitting in New Brunswick.
The newspaper reported the actual dollar figure is likely millions more, and Mark Cuker, a Cherry Hill lawyer representing the families, confirmed yesterday that $13.27 million "is a fragmentary figure."
"I don''t think anybody can try to extrapolate a total figure from a fragmentary figure," Cuker said. "It would be a mistake to try to do that."
Cuker, Cherry Hill lawyer Esther E. Berezofsky and Massachusetts lawyer Jan Schlictmann represented the families.
The court documents do not reveal separate amounts paid to the estates of 15 children who died of cancer. They do mention a $3.75 million "recurrence fund," part of the $13.27 million figure, to cover expenses should any of the surviving victims suffer relapses.
When the settlement with Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp., Union Carbide Corp. and United Water Toms River was announced in mid-December, the lawyers said the terms and conditions would remain confidential. Under the settlement, none of the companies admitted responsibility or any liability for the childhood cancer cases.
The agreement ended four years of mediation among the parties about possible links between environmental contamination and the cancer cases.
Cuker said yesterday he was not happy that dollar figures were made public.
"I would hope the privacy of the families would be respected," he said.
Linda L. Gillick, whose 22-year-old son, Michael, suffers from neuroblastoma, a cancer of the central nervous system, said she was angered that the Inquirer published a story that included figures.
"It''s no one''s business," said Gillick, a member of the group Toxic Environment Affects Children''s Health, whose members hired Schlictmann, Berezofsky and Cuker to represent them in late 1997. "The families have gone through enough. Leave them alone. A lot of them have had old wounds reopened by this process and by the cancer cluster investigation."
From the start, the lawyers urged negotiations rather than litigation against the companies. By entering discussions and agreeing to share information, the families and the companies were able to reach a settlement that benefited all the parties involved, Schlictmann said last month.
They also avoided lengthy, costly litigation that would likely have dragged on for years and proven painful for families, who would have been forced again to relive the pain and suffering experienced by their children, Gillick said.
Ciba Specialty Chemicals -- the successor company to Ciba Geigy Corp. -- and Carbide have accepted responsibility for polluting the township''s two Superfund sites.
United Water Toms River purchased Dover''s public water system from the Toms River Water Co. in 1994.
Gillick said getting money from the companies was never the reason the families entered negotiations.
"It was not the amount of money that''s important," Gillick said. "The fact is, the companies paid up, and we''ve made this a safer place."
Last year, Toms River lawyer Norman Hobbie and lawyers Christopher Placitella, Michael Gordon and Angelo Cifaldi filed a series of lawsuits against Ciba and United Water on behalf of hundreds of people they say were harmed by exposure to contaminated drinking water and polluted air emanating from the chemical plant. Those suits are still pending.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 1/24/02
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