A Civil Action: a gripping and compelling read

(A review)

By Charles C. Ryan

Imagine that your 10-year-old boy died after a long and painful illness.

Now imagine you learned that illness might have been caused by poison that was improperly disposed of by your neighbor.

You would probably be outraged. You would probably demand that the district attorney bring a charge of third-degree murder, or at least manslaughter, against the culprit.

Now imagine that your 10-year-old child died after a long and painful illness and it turns out the neighbor described above is a large corporation. And your only option is to bring a civil action against the firm.

It is just that scenario which Jonathan Harr, a former staff writer at the

New England Monthly, brings to life in A Civil Action (Random House, Copyright (c) Sept. 1995, $25 hardcover).

In this particular case, it's a true story, a story about children who were living in Woburn, a community with a history much like that of Peabody. Its landscape blossomed with tanneries and chemical factories in the 1800s and 1900s. Urban renewal in recent decades replaced the belching brick smokestacks with office parks and malls. But Woburn encountered a problem Peabody hasn't.

In Woburn, it was Anne Anderson, a housewife living in the vicinity of Pine Street near the G and H municipal wells who first began wondering if there might be something wrong with the water, which smelled foul and discolored laundry and dishwasher fittings. She was wondering because her son Jimmy had been diagnosed that year with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She was wondering because a number of children in her small neighborhood were also being treated for the same illness.

Kevin Kane, who also lived in the Pine Street area, was diagnosed. Children began to die: Michael Lilly, Robbie Robbins, Jimmy Anderson, Patrick Toomey, and Jarrod Auferio, who was only two when he died of leukemia, though the death certificate listed asphyxiation as the immediate cause of death.

I was a reporter for the Daily Times Chronicle in April 1979 when a midnight dumper left 85 barrels on a vacant lot owned by the MBTA. The next day, officials from the state's Department of Environmental Protection visited the site. I mentioned to DEP officials that two of the city's wells were a short distance downstream along the banks of the Aberjona River. The wells were tested with a new device capable of detecting minute traces of hydrocarbons.

In May 1979, G and H wells, which primarily served East Woburn, were closed when they were found to be contaminated, but officials did not divulge details of the contamination.

In September 1979, the Daily Times Chronicle carried a front page story of mine that reported the EPA had determined hundred of acres of land in North Woburn were contaminated with lead, arsenic and chromium, including one dried lagoon measuring 34,000 square feet, polluted to a depth of five feet with lead and arsenic, upon which nothing grew. One kilogram (2.2 pounds) contained enough arsenic to kill five adults.

The news stories confirmed Anne Anderson's suspicions about East Woburn's water. In December 1979, the Daily Times Chronicle reported there were significantly elevated levels of a number of cancers in Woburn, including childhood leukemia, with 12 reported cases centered in a cluster around the Pine Street neighborhood where Anne Anderson lived.

Harr touches upon these events in his book, but primarily as a prelude to what was to follow. He could have written an emotional, heart-rending story focused on the children, the pain and misery their illnesses brought to their families, the damage done to those families by the stress (including several divorces). But, though he touched on all of this in the first 75 pages, the legal consequences of the pollution and illnesses occupy the remaining 400 pages of the book.

A lawsuit was filed in U. S. District Court in Boston against W. R. Grace Co., which operated Cryovac, a manufacturer of food processing machinery, and Beatrice Foods, the owner of the J. J. Riley Co., the city's only surviving leather firm. Another firm, UniFirst Corp. was later brought into the suit and settled out of court for a reported $1.1 million.

Truth, justice, and the law

While this is a book about illness, courage, and determination on the part of Anne Anderson and the other families with leukemia victims, it is more a tale of cover-ups, a fable about the law and lawyers -- in particular Jan Schlichtmann, who represented the eight Woburn families.

Harr reports, as many have discovered while watching the O.J. Simpson case, that it is nearly impossible to find the truth when the legal system and complex scientific issues collide in a courtroom.

Before the trial even began, U.S. District Judge Walter J. Skinner divided it into three parts: the first to determine if Grace and Beatrice contaminated the drinking water supply; the second to determine if that contamination caused the cases of childhood leukemia and damaged the immune systems of most members of all eight families; the third to assess damages.

The three-part approach fell apart. At the end of a lengthy phase one, with confusing technical testimony and directions from the judge which limited their options, the jurors found W. R. Grace liable for the contamination, but absolved Beatrice Foods.

The second part of the trial never began, in part because Schlictmann's law firm, burdened by the immense cost of the case and supporting medical tests, was nearly bankrupt. He was forced to seek an out-of-court settlement with W. R. Grace just before Judge Skinner ordered a new trial, largely because of the jury's confusing verdict.

An appeal of the jury's Beatrice verdict by Schlichtmann resulted in the censuring of Mary Ryan, the lawyer for John J. Riley, the former owner of the leather company, for her failure to provide all the requested documents and company records during discovery, and in the censuring of Schlictmann on a separate matter. The case was never reopened, even though a subsequent EPA report provided ample evidence that Beatrice Food's property contaminated the wells.

There were no winners. After the legal costs of preparing for the trial, and the appeal, the families received little of the $8 million settlement. Schlictmann lost his Porsche 928, his condo, and most of his possessions. W. R. Grace was later cited criminally for its failure to reveal all the facts to the EPA, and fined $10,000.

To this day, it has not been fully determined whether the polluted water contributed to the illnesses and deaths, or whether they were simply a statistical anomaly.

Harr has chosen to focus on Schlictmann, his flamboyance, his early skill and luck in personal injury lawsuits, and his obsession with a case which none of his colleagues really wanted to handle.

It is the tale of Icarus, of a flight too close to the sun and a fall from the heights, and it is also a very revealing glimpse of what occurs behind the judicial scenes, of the possible influence of old school ties (Beatrice Foods' lawyer and Skinner had attended Harvard Law School), and why determining the truth is not what the legal system is all about.

It is a gripping and compelling read.

(Charles C. Ryan, Applications Manager at Essex County Newspapers, is the former Managing Editor of the Daily Times Chronicle and the reporter whose investigative work brought to light the extent of the contamination in Woburn and the statistical evidence of increased illnesses.)