Wednesday, November 19, 2003

JEREMIAH STETTLER
THE SAGINAW NEWS

Dow Chemical Co. wants more time.

The chemical giant filed a motion Tuesday urging Saginaw County Chief Circuit Judge Leopold P. Borrello to delay a certification hearing in a class-action lawsuit involving nearly 300 residents.

Residents are suing Dow on claims that it polluted the Tittabawassee River with dioxin, a byproduct of chlorine manufacturing and other industrial processes.

Dow claims the residents' attorneys have not abided by the court's order to share documents. Attorneys said they had received just three e-mails in the past month. Two inches of documents arrived Monday, but attorneys claimed they represent less than 10 percent of the litigants.

Dow attorneys said they haven't seen a "shred of paper" from more than 150 residents named in the lawsuit.

"Dow should not be put in this position," attorneys wrote. "It should have a reasonable opportunity to review the documentation plaintiffs produce prior to noticing a limited number of depositions of proposed class members. It is apparent that will not occur without court intervention."

The company urged Borrello to delay the class-action hearing until mid to late February, but the judge set it for Tuesday, Jan. 27.

Bruce Trogan, a Saginaw-based attorney representing the residents, objected to the delay.

"Every day that you wait is one more day that benefits Dow to the detriment of those who live on the polluted land," he said. "That has been their tactic since the beginning. They don't want the day of reckoning to come."

Trogan said residents' attorneys are abiding by Borrello's order.

Though Dow received few documents in early November, Trogan said he mailed a "mass amount" of documents to Dow last Friday and plans a second mailing this week.

"We shot them everything we had," he said.

The attorney also has flown three out-of-state paralegals into Saginaw to gather records full-time from the 179 named plaintiffs.

"It's not easy to obtain that information," Trogan said. "Clients have to search their files, cabinets and safety deposit boxes for some of this information. When you are talking about 179 people doing that, it is a lot of work." t

Jeremiah Stettler is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9685.

© 2003 Saginaw News.