Court OKs Three
Mile Island Suits
WASHINGTON
General Public
Utilities vs. Abrams, 99-1603, and Dolan vs. General Public
Utilities, 99-1604: 2000 Ruling
The
Supreme Court on Monday refused to free the Three Mile Island
nuclear plant's owners from lawsuits by nearly 2,000 people who
say their health problems stem from the nation's worst nuclear
accident.
|*Information now available that Rocketdyne/Boeing Santa Susana Field Laboratory is described as site of worst U.S. Nuclear Accident|
The court, without comment, rejected an appeal in which the plant
owners argued that all the lawsuits should be thrown out because
a trial judge ruled against 10 people whose claims were
designated as a "test" case.
The justices also turned down a separate appeal by those 10
people, who said the judge wrongly barred most of the expert
testimony offered to support their claims.
During the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island plant near
Harrisburg, Pa., a combination of mechanical and human failures
allowed the reactor core to lose cooling water and partially
melt. Some radioactive gases were released.
Almost 2,000 people sued the plant's owners, saying exposure to
radiation caused health problems such as cancer and birth
defects. The cases were filed separately, not as a class-action,
but for administrative reasons were handled jointly by a federal
judge.
Ten cases were chosen to be tried first as a "test
case" that might predict the outcome of the other cases and
lead to possible settlements.
U.S. District Chief Judge Sylvia H. Rambo held a pretrial hearing
and determined that most of the scientific expert testimony
offered by those who sued was not reliable enough to be admitted
as trial evidence.
As a result, Rambo ruled in 1996 that there was insufficient
evidence to link the residents' health problems the radiation
that leaked from the plant. She dismissed all of the nearly 2,000
cases.
Last November, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld her
ruling on the expert testimony and the dismissal of the 10 cases.
But the appeals court revived the rest of the lawsuits, citing
those peoples' constitutional right to have their cases heard by
a jury.
The plant owners' Supreme Court appeal said the decision to throw
out all of the cases was proper under trial judges' traditional
authority to dismiss meritless claims.
But the plaintiffs' lawyers said the plant owners had agreed that
the outcome of the first 10 cases would not be binding on the
other claims.
In the other appeal acted on Monday, the 10 plaintiffs' lawyers
said the hearing on expert testimony was too extensive and
intruded on their right to have the facts decided by a jury.
The plant's owners said the judge properly performed her
"gatekeeping role" to ensure expert testimony would be
reliable.
The cases are General Public
Utilities vs. Abrams, 99-1603, and Dolan vs. General Public
Utilities, 99-1604.
Copyright
2000 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may
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