Judge in Alabama's PCB pollution case rules that only ill residents can sue

January 11, 2002

Thursday, January 10, 2002

By Associated Press

GADSDEN, Ala. - A judge narrowed the scope of a closely watched PCB

pollution case, restricting the lawsuit against Monsanto Co. to residents

with an illness linked to chemicals discharged by the company.

Originally, more than 3,500 Anniston residents accused Monsanto of dumping

toxic pollutants into local waterways and then hiding their dangers.

Calhoun County Circuit Judge Laird said he did not know how many

plaintiffs would be eliminated from the case as a result of his ruling

Tuesday.

Jury selection for the trial resumed Wednesday.

The class-action lawsuit contends that polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs,

produced at the plant from 1929 to 1971 and released into waterways are

highly toxic chemicals that harm humans, animals, and fish and persist for

decades.

Laird based his decision on a state Supreme Court ruling last year that said

people exposed to dangerous chemicals could not sue for medical monitoring

when they had no apparent injuries.

The high court, ruling in a similar case against Monsanto, also noted that

state law requires a present illness before a plaintiff may recover monetary

damages.

There was no comment on the ruling from attorneys for the residents or for

Solutia Inc., the Monsanto spin-off company that now owns the Anniston plant

and is also named in the suit.

The plaintiffs are seeking monetary compensation for personal injury and

property damage as well as removal of PCBs from their property, local

waterways, and other land in Anniston, 66 miles east of Birmingham.

Solutia officials maintain there is no credible evidence that PCBs made

anyone sick. They also say the chemicals will be cleaned up according to

plans to be developed by state and federal regulators.

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