Contamination case in Woburn catches Hollywood’s attention

When an unusually large number of residents from the same area in Woburn were diagnosed with cancer in the 1970s, some suspected two local corporations were to blame for letting chemicals seep into nearby wells.

But W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods denied that they had made these people sick in Anderson, et al. v. W.R. Grace & Co., et al.

Before the story of the case and the Boston attorney who took it on became a best seller and a movie — "A Civil Action," starring John Travolta — the litigation would consume almost a decade. And Jan R. Schlichtmann, the plaintiffs' Boston attorney who had a reputation for obtaining multi-million-dollar verdicts, would go into bankruptcy as a result of the case.

A jury in U.S. District Court eventually found that Beatrice Foods, represented by Boston attorney Jerome P. Facher, was not liable. W.R. Grace's liability remained unclear, but the corporation agreed to an $8 million settlement.

"It represents the first time in the country that a group of families whose children were poisoned by corporations were able to stand up and seek redress in the courts" based on personal injury, Schlichtmann says. He also says he is "hopeful" that, because of the widely publicized case, "others won't have to suffer in silence or in ignorance." {EXA}