Supreme Court Debates Agent Orange Case
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Wednesday, February 26, 2003 ? Last updated 9:34 a.m. PT
Supreme Court Debates Agent Orange Case
By GINA HOLLAND
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court debated Wednesday the pitfalls of letting
ill Vietnam veterans sue chemical companies over Agent Orange exposure
despite a long-resolved settlement.
Companies that made the herbicide thought their liability ended with a 1984
class-action settlement.
Justices will decide before July whether people who got cancer or other
diseases long after 1984, and didn't even know about the $180 million
settlement, get a chance to challenge the deal.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she was concerned that the newspaper
advertisements that ran at the time didn't reach people who could have been
entitled to money. "Who represented them?" she asked.
But Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and others, seemed worried about
reopening the settlement. "How about people who get sick in 2018?" he asked.
Justice Stephen Breyer said large class-action lawsuits would no longer be
settled, because of uncertainty.
An appeals court ruled that two cancer-stricken vets were not adequately
represented when the settlement was reached. By the time the men found out
they were sick, the cash was gone.
Business groups contend the case could threaten the finality of all
class-action judgments, discouraging companies from settling other lawsuits
out-of-court.
Groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion urged the
court to fix what they call an injustice against people "who survived the
bullets and bombs of the enemy" but are now dying of cancer.
Joe Isaacson, a vice principal in Irvington, N.J., and Daniel Stephenson, a
retired helicopter pilot living in Florida, argue that their cancers are
related to Agent Orange, used in the 1960s and 1970s to clear dense jungle
growth in Vietnam.
Isaacson served as a crew chief in the Air Force for an F-100 fighter jet in
1968 and 1969. He has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is in remission.
Stephenson served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1970 on the ground and as an Army
helicopter pilot. He received a bone marrow transplant after being diagnosed
with multiple myeloma.
John McNeill, a VFW officer, said while the justices may be sympathetic to
the men's plights, "sometimes the legality part of it can be hard and cold."
One of the nine court members is not participating in the case: Justice John
Paul Stevens, whose only son was a Vietnam veteran who apparently suffered
from cancer before his 1996 death. John Joseph Stevens was 47. Justice
Stevens, a veteran of World War II, said his practice is not to disclose
reasons for recusals.
Andrew Frey, an attorney for Dow Chemical Co., Monsanto Co. and others, said
companies that were sued decades ago thought they had finality with a
settlement that provided money for individual vets and for programs to help
all veterans.
"It's not fair to the defendants to say, `Now that we've got your money,
let's start over again,'" Frey said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups said that if people
are allowed to bypass court-approved deals, "class-action settlements could
hardly be called settlements at all."
Ronald Simon, one of the lawyers for the veterans, said the 1984 settlement
was premature.
"The industry got everybody settled and is sitting back now laughing and
saying, `You guys have dead-winner cases, too bad you can't even come to
bat,'" he said.
The case is Dow Chemical Co. v. Stephenson, 02-271.
Sempers,
Roger
United We Stand
God Bless America
Remember our POW/MIA's
I'll never forget!
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