To Tell the TruthAuthor(s): JAN RICHARD SCHLICHTMANNSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 85, No. 3 (MARCH 1999), p. 100Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27840717 .

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PERSPECTIVE

To Tell the Truth

BY JAN RICHARD SCHLICHTMANN

The Woburn, Mass., litigation over industrial

pollution taught me that the best

way to achieve some measure

of justice for victims is by sharing, not

fighting.

The aba Journal welcomes contributions to Perspective. Details for submitting commentaries are on the second contents page. Opinions are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect aba policy.

It has been several years since my lawsuit against two Woburn, Mass., com

panies ended, but the experience contin ues to reverberate throughout my life.

The case was chronicled in a book by Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, and in a recent Disney movie. The story has made

people curious. They want to know: What am I doing now? What have I learned?

The story of Woburn, a working class community north of Boston, began as a mother's insight that too many of the community's children had leukemia. One of the victims was her own child, Jimmy. When this woman, Anne Ander son, learned that the city's drinking water was contaminated with industrial solvents, she and her neighbors wanted answers. My two law partners and I rose to the challenge.

We eventually brought suit in 1982

against W.R. Grace Co. and Beatrice Foods on behalf of eight Woburn fami lies. We alleged the companies were re

sponsible for the pollution of the drink

ing water and its blight of childhood leukemia. The case lasted nine years. It

was a war. At the end, it was difficult to know who had won and who had lost. In

1986, jurors held Grace responsible for

pollution but absolved Beatrice. Grace settled for $8 million.

When it was over? I was left finan

cially, physically and spiritually exhaust ed. Harr's chronicle ended in 1990 with me naked and alone at a remote beach in Hawaii trying to swim away from the

past. But there was no escape. What happened? I finally was able

to embrace the past and accept its teach

ings. I returned to New England to prac tice law again. I married a woman who was there during all the dark times, and my new life took root.

When I was litigating the Woburn case, I viewed truth as a commodity, something to fight over. The lawyers were brought in to help settle the score. But the experience now has taught me there are better ways to get at the truth.

To prove our case we had to show that Grace's metal fabrication plant and Beatrice's tannery polluted city wells and that the pollution caused the cancer. We

brought together many experts to share their experience. Through that process, the connection between the pollution and the children's sickness was revealed.

To prove the companies were re

sponsible for the pollution, I subpoenaed some workers. We got our first big break near the end of a fruitless deposition of a Grace employee, Al Love. At the sugges

tion of my law partner, I asked Al whether he was concerned about the water. The lawyers laughed. "Are you going to make him a plaintiff?" they joked. AI was not laughing. Within the week, he shared with Anne what he knew. Grace was forced to admit it had not been truthful about its chemical use.

There were no Al Loves at Beatrice until the verdict for the company was on appeal and the tannery had closed. Soon after, I was at the kitchen table of an employee who had previously refused to talk. He was dying of leukemia. He shared information that helped me un cover documents that had been withheld, evidence that had been destroyed and

testimony that was false. Beatrice was not penalized for this

misconduct. Instead, I was sanctioned for

bringing the case without the withheld evidence. Yet in other ways we got results.

A Pyrrhic Victory In 1992, based on information we

shared, the epa encouraged Grace and Beatrice to undertake a $70 million clean up of the Woburn aquifer. In 1996, based on data the families helped gather, feder al and state health agencies announced the parents were right about the water. Children who drank it had a 14 times

greater risk of contracting leukemia than those who were not exposed.

Leaving that night in the company of the families, I thought about the past. And for the first time I felt no pain, only joy. Yes, it had been 15 years since Jim my Anderson died, but the past had much to teach. I realized in that moment that the truth is not something to be got ten by taking, destroying or fighting. The truth is all around us, and it comes to us when we share experience.

Today I represent child cancer vic tims in Toms River, N.J., who want to know whether toxic substances in their water caused their illnesses. This time I am handling the case differently.

Two companies implicated in the

pollution?Union Carbide and the Ciba

Geigy Corp.?and 60 families have signed an agreement to share information. It

specifies that during our 18 months of talks, no legal action will be taken. I hope this will help us understand the past and tell us what, if anything, should be done about it.

Jan Richard Schlichtmann is of counsel with Thomas M. Kiley and Asso ciates in Boston and lectures frequently on the Woburn case.

100 ABA JOURNAL / MARCH 1999

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