A Civil Action FACTS: This movie, A Civil Action, is about a lawsuit that began with the death of twelve people, and eight of those twelve people were children. This all takes place in the little city of Woburn Wells, Massachusetts. This is a small city that has two companies that are located really close to the cities river. One company is called W.R. Grace Company and the other is Beatrice Foods. Jan Schlitnmann is the main attorney for the plaintiff’s side along with his partners; Conway, Gordon, and Crowley. The attorney for W.R. Grace was William Cheeseman, and the attorney for Beatrice foods was Jerome Fatcher. Anne Anderson initially told one of Jan’s partners her story and put many calls into their office. However, she never …show more content…
Well, the families of Woburn Wells wanted no part of the money. They just wanted the problem fixed and an apology from the ones who caused this tragedy. Jan Schlichtmann initially didn't want to take the case because he doesn't think that there will be any money in it for him and his firm. Even though he goes and sees how much pain this company has caused to the people in Woburn Wells, he still doesn't care because of the money. Not until he realizes how big the companies are does he take the case. The firm took the case and went to work. The first hearing ruled that Beatrice Foods wasn’t to be held accountable, just W.R. Grace Company, There were many scientific and complex tests that had to be run in order to prove that the water was contaminated by W.R. Grace. This was all at the cost of Schlichtmann’s firm. As the case goes on he isn't able to achieve what he ultimately wanted to do because the Grace Company has so much money that they will almost always win. Schlichtmann’s firm goes into debt trying to win this case but ultimately has to settle because they can't go on. Schlichtmann ended up settling with W.R. Grace for 8 million dollars. After all debts are paid (all of the equipment that was rented, the Dr.’s that ran the tests, the scientist’s, etc.) and the fee for Schlichtmann’s firm, the families were awarded $357,000 per family! This made the families very upset. Not because of the amount of the
Facher gets his way in not letting the families testify because the judge agrees with him that it would be too much for the families. When repeat players and relationships between lawyers and judges come into play this can change the course of a case as it has severely hurt Mr. Schilichtmann’s plan. This led to no closing augments in the trial in Beatrice Foods being found not liable and the trial against W.R. Grace continues. The reason W.R. Grace is able to continue is because they have deep pockets and can afford to continue in a trail. However, Schilichtmann and his firm did not have deep pockets and after a long trail finally took a settlement and this was the end of their fight. Schilichtmann later went on and had the case sent to the EPA where they were able to appeal it because they had the money and the resources to unlike Schilichtmann. So from this we can see that money plays a huge roll in the litigation
Jurisdiction played a key role in the outcome of the lawsuit in A Civil Action. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Jan Schlichtmann, filed the original complaint against W. R. Grace and Beatrice Foods in state court. Schlichtmann, a personal injury attorney, spends most of his time there; personal injury is heard much less frequently in federal court. William Cheeseman, the attorney for W. R. Grace, almost immediately removes the case to federal court since W. R. Grace’s headquarters is in New York and the amount in question is clearly over
In the movie “A Civil Action” Jan Schlichtmann takes on the case of his life as he prepares to take down, deep pockets, Beatrice Co. and Grace Foods. At first Schlichtmann does not see any money in the case and tosses it aside. When he goes to tell the families who lost their children that he can not take the case, Anne Anderson tells him about a tannery in the woods behind the neighborhood. After Schlichtmann goes and sees that these tanneries have deep pockets connected to them, he agrees to take on the case. Soon he gets emotionally invested; which was his one rule: to never get attached to a case and sympathize over the victims. In law he can not cloud his judgment with emotions because he will make irrational decisions based on the victims and forget what is best for
The Law firm won the case in the end with the verdict that Pacific Gas & Energy had to compensate the plaintiffs in the amount of $333 million for damages (cornell.edu web site).
Though Jan put off the Woburn case for a long time, he took it thinking that a public interest firm would brunt the cost and workload. As it turned out, he and his associates had to take on the companies, and their prominent attorneys, single handedly. Even the EPA couldn't conclude a connection in the poisoning and refused to "help an attorney collect a settlement fee." As Jan became obsessive with the Woborn case, a reader is able to tag along on a host of legal battles put forth by the opposing counsel. Rarely used legal rules, such as "Rule 11", were put forth to destroy Jan and the case itself. This is further complicated by the trial judge, Judge
Cook and Colgate are the parties in the case. The case can be found in volume 992 of the Federal Reporter, Second Series beginning on page 17. The case was decided by the United States Supreme Court Second Circuit in 1993.
In the film, “A Civil Action,” the attorney on the side of the plaintiff's, Jan Schlichtmann, is defending the families, including the Andersons, who lost their beloved children to Leukemia. In the court case, “Anderson and all vs. Beatrice foods and Grace,” the plaintiff’s believed the contaminated drinking water from the city wells was the root cause of the leukemia. At first, Mr. Schlichtmann did not want to take the case, stating there was no value to it. He even stated, “The odds of a plaintiff’s lawyer winning in civil court are two to one against,” (1). Nonetheless, he later discovered the true value the case withheld. In the case, Jan simply wanted compensation for the victims of the contaminated drinking water. Grace and Beatrice,
thought they had a case. They filed the paperwork, and waited to hear back. The news wasn't
Comes Plaintiff, Constance Wolf F/K/A Constance Wolfgram, by counsel, and for her complaint states as follows:
In this statement of argument, we will prove that W.R. Grace & Company, Beatrice Foods Company, and UniFirst Corporation are innocent from the chemical perspective of the case. We will look at Woburn’s chemical industry history to see they type
Initially reluctant to accept the case, Schlichtmann agreed to represent the parties after discovering the involvement of two wealthy corporations: W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. Confident
immediate revenue from false settlements. Through the use of his law firm he fabricated court
Both parties consulted their attorneys whose guidance instructed them that they did not have to disclose the information. The motivating factor in both decisions was to protect the livelihood of their companies. The facts of the information that had been revealed to each company had not been proven.
Jan got 2.2 million not his entitled 40 percent, and in the end Schlitmann had only 30 thousand dollars left. He was dept free, but there was no money left over for him to reclaim his Porsche. His ideas of the civil justice system was dead, and he resolved not to practice law again. It was his good friend Harr
The main entities in the case were Sky Air Inc. and Thyestean Ventures’ officials. The Chief Executive Officer of Sky Air Inc., Samuel Kaplan, and Thyestean Ventures’ managing partner, Stacy Simms, were the two main characters who drove the case. In this case, Kaplan had the task of promoting his company to ensure that it maximizes its profits. He was solely responsible for all the operations of the company as well as forming partnerships when a need arose. Mr. Kaplan was branded as a hard working entrepreneur, having grown a business from scratch. He knew that he would have to make this sound decision on his own. Stacy Simms had the responsibility to Thyestean Ventures to incur minimal expenses and maximize shareholders wealth.