"We have lost a lot more than anybody can pay us for," said Richard Toomey, whose son, Patrick, died of leukemia in 1981, at age 11. The population was 38,120 at the 2010 census. First, two huge corporations — W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods — owned the property where pollution seemed to have occurred; this meant potential "deep pockets" to pay any damages that might be won. However, due to the lawsuits brought forward by the Environmental Protection Agency, W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods are eventually forced to pay for the largest chemical cleanup in the history of the Northeastern United States at that time, which cost about $68 million.

He spends lavishly as he had in his prior lawsuits, but the length of the discovery process and trial stretch all of their assets to their limit. Although the settlement laid to rest the claims that the original eight families had been pursuing since 1982, it left untouched the mystery of a larger cluster of cases of the rare blood-cell cancer called leukemia —26 in all — that has afflicted Woburn residents since 1964. But Schlichtmann's poor judgment and pride were a big part of the problem. Anne Anderson and a group of other victim's families hired a personal injury law firm to pursue a civil case against the polluters of the well. Schlichtmann disregarded his partners' advice; his small, under-funded firm would take the case, challenging Grace and Beatrice and the elite Boston lawyers who represented them. For the film, see, Learn how and when to remove this template message, The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece, a high prevalence of leukemia, a relatively rare disease, in her city, Benjamin Thompson House — Count Rumford Birthplace, Winn Memorial Library / Woburn Public Library, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Civil_Action&oldid=959593740, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning works, Articles lacking sources from December 2013, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 29 May 2020, at 15:19. For many years it was primarily an agricultural community, but the first tanning enterprise began in 1648, and Gershom Flagg built a house and tannery next to the Town Meeting Hall in 1668.

Schlichtmann originally decides not to take the case due to both the lack of evidence and a clear defendant. Schlichtmann's firm dissolved.

Twelve families agreed yesterday to settle for a reported $8 million and to withdraw their claim that chemically-contaminated Woburn drinking water caused the leukemias that killed five children and one adult. Boston University School of Public Health.

Children of seven of the plaintiffs contracted leukemia.

In less than a decade, children began getting sick.


Activity 1: Panel Discussion/Debate: Integration v. Segregation?

The industry continued to expand, and by 1865 Woburn was home to 21 active tanning and currying shops. A Civil Action is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr about a water contamination case in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980s.The book became a best-seller and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.. After Jimmy and seven other children died and many others fell seriously ill, tests proved that the water in two public wells was, in fact, seriously polluted with toxic chemicals from industrial waste. Though Unifirst settles for a little over $1 million, the money immediately is invested in the case against Grace and Beatrice. Schlichtmann had one stroke of good luck — he found an honest Grace employee who testified that he had witnessed dumping of hazardous waste and that his boss had authorized it — but the lawyer had far more bad luck. Tanneries used toxic compounds to cure leather, and other factories sent what one reporter called "a toxic brew" down the local Aberjona River. The families nevertheless asserted a victory in their campaign to "send a message to corporate America.". The case is Anderson v.Cryovac.The first reported decision in the case is at 96 F.R.D. For several years, the case lingered. His mother Anne suspected her son's illness was caused by contaminated drinking water in their hometown of Woburn.
A report from the Environmental Protection Agency (which later filed its own lawsuits against the companies based on new evidence) concludes that both companies had contaminated the wells from sludge removed from the site. "Toxic Legacy —Behind — and Beyond — the Hype over A Civil Action: A Reporter Revisits the Scene of the Real Woburn Tragedy," by Dan Kennedy, The Boston Phoenix, December 17 - 24, 1998.

Although the trial would eventually yield a best-selling book and a movie (A Civil Action), the story would have no happy Hollywood ending. The period after the trial was punctuated by numerous appeals by Schlichtmann, Conway & Crowley, a perjury ruling against John Riley, a misconduct ruling against one of the defense attorneys, and the U.S. Appellate Court upholding Judge Skinner's ruling to divide the trial into phases.

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