Lawyers, Not Plaintiffs, Win Big in Solutia/Monsan
Birmingham, AL, Mar. 25--The plaintiffs in a $300 million settlement over PCB contamination in Anniston will receive an average of $7,725 apiece, while their attorneys will get millions each _ including $29 million to the firm of California celebrity lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jr.
The numbers, revealed in court documents and letters that plaintiffs are receiving this week, have provoked a furor in the Alabama city, where many people already are seething over decades of pollution.
David Baker, a local activist who helped craft the case, said Tuesday he and his wife have received death threats over their role, and dozens of people vented their anger at a community meeting Monday night. Many of the people who filed claims are needy and had hoped for large payments.
"They're upset by the amount the lawyers got," said Baker, president of Community Against Pollution.
Attorneys involved in the federal case said about 27 lawyers, working for eight law firms, would share the $120 million approved by the court for legal fees. That works out to an average of more than $4 million for each lawyer.
After the attorneys and other costs are paid, the 18,447 plaintiffs will get an average of $7,725 and as little as $500 each, according to documents from claims administrator Ed Gentle.
Cochran's firm recruited plaintiffs with TV commercials and a community meeting and helped guide the litigation.
The largest legal payment went to the firm of former Alabama Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley; it received $34 million. Beasley, a lead attorney in the case, said none of the payments was excessive and his firm reduced its typical rate by 5 percent.
"The fees were approved by the court and they are not out of line for a case of that magnitude," he said.
Some are not buying it.
Beverly Carmichael received a standing ovation at the community meeting when she challenged the size of lawyers' payments.
"I know one thing that will solve all the problems we've been having, if the attorneys gave us half the money back," The Anniston Star quoted her as saying.
U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon of Birmingham and Alabama Circuit Judge Joel Laird of Anniston approved two settlements reached last year between Monsanto Co., its spinoff company Solutia, and more than 20,000 plaintiffs.
The federal case was settled for $300 million, the state case for another $300 million. Both involved lawsuits filed by people who claimed that pollution from a factory that made PCBs in Anniston endangered their health or damaged their property.
PCBs were long used in as insulators in electrical equipment until studies raised questions about health risks. The Anniston plant quit making PCBs in the 1970s.
In the state court case, the money was used to settle about 3,500 claims, with $114 million going to lawyers and $15 million for expenses. Many people with state claims received payments exceeding $200,000.
In the federal case, the money went to resolve claims from five times as many people. That reduced the amount each person received.
Beasley said it would have been "absolutely impossible" to get more money out of the companies since Solutia, which now operates the old PCB plant, was headed for bankruptcy at the time.
