Lawsuit Analysis Anne Anderson

819 Words4 Pages
Lawsuit Analysis Anderson In May 1982 a group of six Woburn families, all of whom had a child who had died of leukemia or who was being treated for the illness, filed a lawsuit against two municipal corporations in U.S. District Court in Boston. Families charged that W.R Grace & Company, of New York, and Beatrice Foods Company, of Chicago, had contaminated two municipal wells in East Woburn. The whole case was based out of defendants’ alleged pollution of the ground water in certain areas in Woburn, Massachusetts, with chemicals. Plaintiffs, who were six Woburn families, alleged that the two Woburn water wells H and G, had contaminated water before they were closed in 1979 and that exposure to this polluted water caused them to suffer severe injuries. The plaintiffs alleged that ingestion of toxic chemicals (trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene) used in this industries, which were tested in water samples from municipal wells, were responsible for the severe health effects. According to those who drank it, the water smelled and had an objectionable taste. The case, which eventually grew to involve eight families and three defendants (UniFirst Corporation), raised considerable hopes. One resident, Ann Anderson whose three year old son was diagnostic with leukemia in 1967, started to believe that the water produced by H and G was responsible for the group of leukemia cases and other illness in her neighborhood. Jimmy Anderson, Anne’s youngest child, died of acute lymphocytic leukemia in 1981, at the age of 12. Although the lawsuit was filed in May 1982, the trial did not begin until March 10, 1986, because of court’s ruling on several motions and four years of discovery. The case was assigned to the Judge Walter J. Skinner. Judge Skinner divided the trial into three parts. In the first part, plaintiffs had to show that wells H and G had become

More about Lawsuit Analysis Anne Anderson

Open Document