| Decision on
dioxin class-action status delayed again |
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| Kathie Marchlewski , The Midland Daily News | 11/26/2003 |
| Whether the
Tittabawassee River flood plain dioxin lawsuit will be given class action status will be
decided in February. Saginaw County Circuit Court Judge Leopold Borrello has extended the hearing on certification a third time – until Feb. 24, 9:30 a.m. He will make determination by March 1, he said. The latest change of date took place at a Tuesday hearing scheduled after attorneys from The Dow Chemical Co. complained they haven’t received from plaintiffs the information they will need to oppose the action. In a request for more time, Dow attorneys told Borrello that, as of last week, they had received only three pieces of paper from plaintiffs who agreed to provide home appraisals and information about the value of their homes, any insurance claims they have made and correspondence regarding the dioxin matter. By the time of the hearing, they said they had received about 800 documents, a fraction of what was requested. Plaintiffs had agreed to supply all information by the court’s Dec. 1 deadline. Lead counsel Jan Helder, representing about 179 riverside property owners, said complete files will be available for only about 90 plaintiffs. Gathering documents has been challenging because of plaintiffs’ busy schedules and the fact that some are out of state for the winter, he said. But that number should be more than adequate for Borrello to make a determination that the questions of law and fact in the case are common, Helder said. "This is a case that can be determined on the information we have now," Helder said. "This is Dow trying to make something that is simple far more complicated than it has to be." Plaintiffs consider Dow’s extension request a delay tactic and add that most of the information is irrelevant to the case. Dow attorneys have a similar complaint about unnecessary delay and argue the information is important and that plaintiffs agreed to provide it. "If it’s simple and not complicated, we should have (the information) now," said Kathleen Lang, representing Dow. She added that if the company told courts it was "too busy" to provide promised documents, it would be sanctioned. "We’re growing weary of him delaying this process," Dow spokesman Scot Wheeler said of Helder. "He has continued to drag his feet on providing this information." If the case is granted class certification an estimated 2,000 property owners would be party to the suit that seeks the value of property deemed contaminated and medical monitoring for health that may be jeopardized because of dioxin exposure. |
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| İMidland Daily News 2003 | |
For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawasse River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.