Forest City Enterprises Inc. sued by Former Employees over Toxic Exposure

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The Plain Dealer

September 22, 1999

EX-EMPLOYEES SUE FOREST CITY OVER WORKPLACE EXPOSURE

By Bill Lubinger

Forest City Enterprises Inc. was sued yesterday by 65 former employees

alleging the Cleveland-based developer knowingly exposed them to hazardous

materials during the renovation of two West Coast apartment complexes.

The workers are seeking $100 million. The suit was filed in Los Angeles

Superior Court.

The former employees allege Forest City forced them to remove hazardous

materials without safety equipment, failed to disclose the presence of

asbestos, hazardous molds and lead paint, and had them illegally dispose of

the materials in community landfills.

Tom Kmiecik, Forest City's assistant treasurer, said the company couldn't

comment on pending litigation.

The properties were the Colony Woods apartments in Bellevue, Wash., and the

Knolls apartments in Orange, Calif.

Renovation of the 396-unit Colony Woods, which started in 1997 with

financing guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban

Development, involved removing ceilings and floors that contained asbestos

and toxic mold and mildew, the suit alleges.

According to the suit, Forest City fired an asbestos-abatement company after

a year and replaced the contractor with " transient manual laborers " to

finish the job without protective clothing, respirators or other safety

equipment.

The suit claims that Forest City and a California general contractor also

failed to protect employees from toxic materials during the 1995 renovation

of the 260-unit Knolls apartments and that, in both projects, the materials

were thrown from windows to the ground or into unmarked Dumpsters.

Using manual labor, failing to provide safety equipment and taking shortcuts

to dispose of the materials saved Forest City about $3 million in expenses,

the suit claims.

Forest City told workers there was no asbestos in the buildings, and they

would be fired if the work wasn't completed, the suit contends.

" In some cases, they paid these people less than the prevailing wage in

exchange for living quarters, " S. Meulemans, the workers' San

Francisco attorney, said in a phone interview.

About 20 of the workers and their families - some with young children - were

living in the apartments during reconstruction, she said.

" It was pretty bad, " Meulemans said. " They were ripping out these ceilings

and floors in this asbestos rain storm and then living there at night. "

An August mediation hearing failed to resolve the dispute. In January, the

Washington State Department of Labor and Industries fined Forest City

$42,000 for 19 health and safety violations found in the Colony Woods

project.

Forest City is a $3 billion publicly traded firm that develops, owns and

manages commercial and residential properties. Among its holdings are Tower

City Center in downtown Cleveland.

E-mail: blubinge@...

Phone: (216) 999-5531