Dioxin court date set

Kathie Marchlewski, Midland Daily News 08/09/2005

Plaintiffs in the pending lawsuit against The Dow Chemical Co. over dioxin contamination are preparing for their long-awaited day in court.

"This case has been pending for two and a half years. Both sides have a right to know if this is going to proceed as a class action suit," said Bruce Trogan of Trogan & Trogan, PC, the Saginaw-based law firm providing local representation for Freelanders Kathy and Gary Henry and 160 other Tittabawassee River flood plain residents.

The parties will be meeting Friday for a status conference on the case, and a hearing for class certification has tentatively been scheduled in Saginaw County Circuit Court for Aug. 23.

A stay order by the Michigan Supreme Court in June 2004 marked the sixth delay of the hearing to determine if the suit will grow to include 2,000 owners of potentially contaminated flood plain property.

The plaintiffs are seeking the value of their property, which they say has been made worthless by dioxin contamination deposited by Dow into the river and onto the flood plain.

They also had been seeking a second class of people who lived along the flood plain since January 1984 who they believe might someday experience health problems related to dioxin exposure. That facet of the suit, which asked that Dow be made to fund a medical monitoring trust, was dismissed in July when the Supreme Court decided that because no actual injury exists, no suit for potential injury could be brought.

Kathy Henry, said she "has waited long enough" for the case to move forward, and is looking forward to resolution.

Dow spokesman Scot Wheeler said today the company has studied flood plain property values and seen no ill effects.

"We continue to see the properties retaining their value," he said.

©Midland Daily News 2005
 

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