Subject: PCBs - Monsanto convicted
From: Andrew Hund (axh69@po.cwru.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 31 2000 - 11:19:21 CDT
>>
>>Extract from The AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER
>>Issue # 87 August 30, 2000
>>
>>Monitoring Corporate Agribusiness From a Public Interest Perspective
>>A.V. Krebs
>>Editor\Publisher
>>
>>MONSANTO CORP.:
>>CONVICTED AND FINED $90 MILLION
>>FOR SELLING DEFECTIVE AND TOXIC PCBS
>>
>>After listening to testimony that the danger to workers posed by PCBs was
>>the reason state officials had to demolish and replace a 12-story state
>>building next to the Capitol after a 1994 fire, a Philadelphia jury stunned
>>the Monsanto Co. recently by ruling that the company should pay $90 million
>>in damages to the state of Pennsylvania for selling defective and toxic PCBs
>>that left the building contaminated after a 1994 fire.
>>
>>The state argued that the danger to workers posed by the PCBs was the reason
>>state officials had to demolish and replace the 12-story building. State
>>officials sought more than $200 million in damages to cover cleanup,
>>demolition and replacement costs. Monsanto, which stopped making PCBs in the
>>1970s, countered that the state was seeking a scapegoat for its own
>>mismanagement of the building and was trying to stick the chemical company
>>with the bill for a modern office facility that was needed anyway.
>>
>>But, as the Philadelphia Inquirer's Ken Dilanian reports, the 12-member
>>Commonwealth Court jury of six men and six women after a 10 days of
>>deliberations and a 15-month civil trial found Monsanto liable for the
>>contamination.
>>
>>At the same time they also cleared two other defendants in the case, U.S.
>>Mineral Corp. and Courtaulds Aerospace Inc., of any liability. The state
>>previously reached a $1 million settlement with U.S. Mineral over asbestos
>>in the building.
>>
>>PCB, a suspected carcinogen banned by Congress in 1976, was present in glue
>>used in the ductwork of the 30-year-old Department of Transportation
>>headquarters. Elevated levels of PCBs were discovered only after the fire,
>>and state officials cited the contamination as a reason for their decision
>>to demolish the building in August 1998.
>>
>>Kenneth McClain, a Kansas City, Missouri. litigator who tried the case for
>>the state, said the verdict made history as the first time Monsanto had been
>>held liable for PCB contamination in a building. The case was also unusual
>>in that it was brought by a state government, he said.
>>
>>"This is a very historic case," he told Dilanian, "one which establishes an
>>incredible precedent: that Monsanto is responsible for PCB contamination,
>>which for years they have ignored and denied all over the country."
>>
>>Monsanto's lead defense lawyer, Thomas Goutman, said the company would
>>appeal the jury's decision to the trial judge. He said the company also
>>might seek state Supreme Court review of the judge's decision to allow the
>>state to seek replacement costs for the building, which Monsanto believes is
>>contrary to state law.
>>
>>Three jurors interviewed after the verdict said that no one on the panel
>>believed Monsanto's contention that PCBs in the office building were not a
>>human health risk. The jurors said they considered $90 million a compromise
>>verdict.
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