Judge orders new trial in Pennsylvania radiation case

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Judge orders new trial in Pennsylvania radiation case 

PITTSBURGH (June 25, 1999)
A judge has thrown out a 36.5 million award to eight cancer victims and
their families and ordered a new trial in a lawsuit against uranium
plant operators in a small Pennsylvania town. 

U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose ruled that some testimony was
prejudicial and evidence was improperly withheld from lawyers for the
companies. 

"All I know is that I'm upset just at the thought of having to go
through this again," said Mary Ann Hall, who was awarded $8.5 million
after losing her 24-year-old daughter to leukemia on Christmas Day 1992.
"It was hard enough the first time and it will probably be harder the
second time," she said Friday. 

Residents say they inhaled white radioactive dust from the plant for
three decades and claim microscopic particles of uranium caused an
unusually high cancer rate. The plant shut down in 1986, and residents
sued in 1994. 
The plant was located in Apollo, a town of nearly 2,000 people about 30
miles northeast of Pittsburgh. 

Attorneys for plant operators Atlantic Richfield Co. and Babcock &
Wilcox Co. argued that the emissions were not excessive and that nobody
could prove a link between the radiation and diseases. 

A jury in September ordered the companies to pay $36.5 million in
compensatory damages. 

In a 37-page ruling dated for Friday, Ambrose, who presided over the
original trial, wrote that jurors were prejudiced by shaky data and
improper testimony that was "highly prejudicial and often irrelevant." 
She pointed to testimony in which Hall and her husband, Donald, describe
the anguish of losing their daughter. Their testimony was "irrelevant
and highly prejudicial and will not be admitted at a new trial." 

The judge said attorneys for the plaintiffs should have shared with
company attorneys exhibits and testimony that showed an increase of
cancer cases in Apollo compared with nearby communities. The evidence
also should have been verified by the study's author. 

-- 
==================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 South Illinois Avenue, Suite 208
Oak Ridge, Tennessee  37830
Phone (423) 483-1333; Fax (423) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net
VISIT OUR UPDATED WEB SITE:  http://www.local-oversight.org
==================================================
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