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Litigation
In Lake Charles, LA, there are two facilities that
manufacture VCM (PPG Industries and Condea Vista - formerly Conoco Chemicals
and now Georgia Gulf). The types of workers at these plants involved in the
manufacture and production of VCM include loaders, operators, maintenance
people, pipe fitters, laborers, railroad workers, etc. The following cases are
examples of the type of vinyl chloride litigation in which our office has been
involved. Please note that the McKinley and Zerby cases are pending in
Ashtabula, Ohio and Wilmington, Delaware respectively. Although the lawyers in
our office are only licensed to practice in Texas and Louisiana, if you live in
another state we may be able to represent you through co-counsel agreements
with lawyers in your own area. This is a common practice in complicated cases
like these.
After over twenty years of employment at Conoco
Chemicals and Condea Vista, Dan Ross became ill and was subsequently diagnosed
with brain cancer. Our law firm, in late 1990, filed a lawsuit, Ross v. Conoco,
naming Dan's former employers as liable for his personal injury as a result of
alleged intentional tort and negligence. Through the process of discovery,
documents depicting the vinyl industry's activities were produced. These
documents, and similar documents produced after Plaintiffs amended their
lawsuit to add members and former members of the vinyl industry, form the basis
for allegations of an alleged four-decade-long conspiracy to conceal the true
nature and degree of the hazards posed by exposure to VCM.
In another case in Ohio, McKinley v. Gencorp, the Court entered an Order
requiring Plaintiffs to prepare a conspiracy case statement to describe in
detail the acts of the industry members from the late fifties to the
mid-nineties. This Order resulted in Plaintiffs' submission of Plaintiffs'
Disclosure Statement and Plaintiffs' First Supplemental Statement in which we
attempted to describe, in detail, the facts allegedly giving rise to their
conspiracy claim. (Readers desiring documentation are invited to use the
Environmental Working Group's excellent search engine:
http://www.chemicalindustryarchives.org.
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