[CPEO-BIF] $700 million deal in Ala. PCB cases

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Alabama
MSNBC
ASSOCIATED PRESS
$700 million deal in Ala. PCB cases
Monsanto, Solutia agree to pay residents for contamination
August 20, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 20 — Solutia Inc. and Monsanto Co. have agreed to
pay $700 million to settle claims by more than 20,000 Anniston residents
over PCB contamination, plaintiff’s attorneys said Wednesday. The
agreement, which will end a long-running trial in state court over
decades-old pollution from a chemical plant in the east Alabama city,
includes payments to homeowners and cash to fund a PCB research
laboratory, lawyers for the residents said in a statement.

THE TWO companies said the settlement calls for $600 million in cash.
Monsanto will pay $390 million, Solutia will pay $50 million and the
rest will be covered by insurance, according to a statement from
Monsanto.

Costs for cleanup, prescription drug and other programs detailed in the
agreement will push the total amount past $700 million, said Stacy
Smith, a spokeswoman for the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Another plaintiff’s
attorney, Jere Beasley, said the total would surpass $800 million.

Jurors already had awarded more than $100 million in verdicts against
the companies in the trial, which began more than 1½ years ago. Experts
expected the judgments to go much higher in the trial, which was
expected to last months more.

The deal also avoided a federal trial set for this fall over
contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls, a once-common electrical
insulator banned in the 1970s amid health concerns.

“We are glad to have this litigation behind us as it removes a burden
for the company, its employees and stakeholders; and the community of
Anniston, Alabama,” Solutia Chairman and CEO John C. Hunter said in a
statement.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/955240.asp

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