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This 4 page paper uses Jonathan Herr's book "A Civil Action" to answer questions about the American legal system and whether or not justice can be found within it. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
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4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVCivAct.rtf
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to answer questions about the American legal system and whether or not justice can be found within it. Discussion The case described in the book is Anne Anderson et al.
v. W.R. Grace & Co., et al, and is a real lawsuit filed in 1982 by eight families in Woburn, Massachusetts (Trevino, 2000). They filed suit against W.R. Grace, a
multinational chemical company, and Beatrice Foods, asserting that "poor waste disposal practices by subsidiaries owned by Grace and Beatrice, located in Woburn, poisoned the plaintiffs drinking water with toxic chemicals,
which in turn led to fatal illnesses in their families" (Trevino, 2000, p. 337). Among the chemicals the companies are accused of dumping are trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene, known as
"perc" (Trevino, 2000). Both chemicals had been listed by the EPA as potential carcinogens; when eight children in the community developed leukemia, Anderson and others did a great deal of
research and then brought the suit against the corporations for dumping (Trevino, 2000). It was a classic case of David and Goliath, and this time, David won only a partial
victory. The attorney for the plaintiffs is Jay Schlichtmann of Schlichtmann, Conway & Crowley. A somewhat unsavory character, Schlichtmann seems to have grown a conscience and taken on the suit
after hearing of the deaths of the children and the illness in the community (Trevino, 2000). Today it has been proven that there is a direct connection between the polluted
water and the childrens deaths, but in 1982 the connection hadnt been fully established, which made Schlichtmanns job much tougher (Trevino, 2000). Schlichtmann found himself up against a very smart
attorney by the name of Jerome Facher, counsel for Beatrice Foods, who manages to get his client acquitted (Trevino, 2000). In the movie version of the book, Facher and Schlichtmann
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