civil action

A detailed Summary of civil action

In 1979, two wells supplying the drinking water for the small New England town of East Worburn, in Massachusetts, were found to be dumping industrial solvents. At this same time in Massachusetts, there were other investigations of industrial dumping. The residents of Worburn had long been concerned about their foul-tasting drinking water and the unexplained high incidence of leukemia deaths of the young children in their community.

Anne Anderson, a mother whose son Jimmy died of leukemia in 1981, spearheaded the efforts of eight Worburn families to determine the parties responsible for their environmental tragedy. Eventually "mega corporations" Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace & Co. were identified as the owners of the properties that may have been the possible source of most of the pollutants.

Jan Schilctmann, a personal-injury lawyer, and his small law firm were hired to sue these two major corporations. He was hired to sue them for the damage arising from the pollution of the town's drinking water.

Jerome Facher, was the chief litigator at a venerable Boston law firm, were he was in charge of representing Beatrice Foods. William Cheeseman was appointed to defend the interests of the international conglome

In the story a civil action there were many ups and downs over the eight-year trial. Schlichtmann succumbs to the temptations of greed, good intentions, and the boasting, and plummets to the deepest circles of wasted opportunity as well as courtroom embarrassment and at the same time bankruptcy. In reading this case and story I started to see Schlichtmann as "David" and the defense as "Goliath". I could not imagine having to take two huge law firms and at the same time two huge companies and try to get them to confess to the internal destruction they caused. The pressure and humility would be unbearable for me to handle. He sees this destruction first hand when he is driving through Worburn and was stopped for speeding. He later gets out of the car and trespasses on the land to see that the companies involved are not small violators but big criminals. He then knows there is a case to be had. I believe that this is one of the many reasons that this case did not receive the justice that it deserved. Schlichtmann and his partner James Gordon, really show the darkness of the law, by looking at the financial outcome of the verdict. Gordon felt there was a "bottomless hole of investment", meaning the time and energy did not equal the means. Therefore, they were hesitant to take the case. This part of the story shows that the greed of money has an influence on the justice system. I mean that by lawyers passing over cases that seem to be a "no win" situations; people that are seeking justice are being robbed of their right to a trial. Lawyers are people that are here to represent injustices that have been done to us. Therefore, they are not supposed to pass judgement on a case do to its benefits. However, we know that this is wishful thinking and that lawyers are just the same as the rest of the world, in the fact that they want fame and fortune.

Schlichtmann and his partn

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1269
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous