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Phantom Blooper
11-12-10, 07:43 AM
Judge refuses to dismiss Camp Lejeune water exposure lawsuit

November 10, 2010 5:18 PM
Barbara Barrett
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — In a case being followed closely by some Marine veterans and their families, a federal judge has denied the Navy's request to dismiss a civil case regarding an Iowa woman's exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

The Department of the Navy had argued that Laura Jones' claim should have been dismissed because she didn't file within a 10-year statute of repose — similar to a statute of limitation — that should have limited the time available for her to file suit.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle pointed out that her non-Hodgkin's lymphoma hadn't even been diagnosed by then, and he quotes congressional testimony in pointing out that cancer related to toxic exposure might not appear for 10 to 15 years.

"To summarily bar such claims from entering the courthouse would be a profound miscarriage of justice," wrote Boyle, who represents the U.S. Eastern District of North Carolina.

He turned down the Navy's request to dismiss the case, and he also denied the government's request to make its arguments at a hearing.

Although the case is being heard in North Carolina, Marine veterans and their families across the country are paying close attention. Boyle wrote in his decision that half a million Marines and their family members were exposed to toxic substances during the time of the contamination, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s.

Boyle made note of the other potential victims in his decision.

"To apply the statute of repose in this case would bar all potential claims from the over 500,000 Marines and their families affected," he wrote. "Indeed, it would bar the overwhelming majority of claims involving any cancer."

Jones lived at Camp Lejeune as a Marine spouse from 1980-81. She was diagnosed two decades later with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but she didn't learn until 2005 that Lejeune's water had been contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride and benzene.

She filed suit in 2009.

The Navy had argued that a North Carolina state law prohibited tort claims more than 10 years after a defendant's alleged culpable conduct — even if harm to the plaintiff had not manifested itself.

Boyle said the state law had an exception for "latent diseases," including the cancer from which Jones is suffering.

"The court cannot fathom a law that would require hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs to bring their claims before they even had opportunity to know they were harmed," Boyle wrote.

This was the second time Boyle has denied a request by the Navy to dismiss the case.



Judge faults Navy for violating water standards

November 12, 2010 7:32 AM
HOPE HODGE

A U.S. District judge who upheld the right of a former Camp Lejeune resident to sue the government for allowing her to be exposed to the contaminated water that may have caused her cancer also faulted the Navy for violating its own clean water standards.

On Wednesday, Eastern District Court Judge Terrence Boyle rejected for the second time a motion by the Navy to dismiss a $10,000 lawsuit by Marine spouse Laura Jones on the grounds that her 2009 complaint was outside North Carolina’s 10-year statute of repose for injury claims.

Jones, who lived aboard Lejeune from spring 1980 to May 1983 and contracted non-Hodgkins lymphoma 20 years later, attests in her suit that she only learned in 2005 about the toxic chemicals and organic solvents that were in the water she drank on base. Since disease resulting from exposure to carcinogens can take 15 to 20 years or more to manifest, Boyle found the statute of limitations did not apply.

“The Court cannot fathom a law that would require hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs to bring their claims before they even had opportunity to know they were harmed,” he wrote.

Joseph Anderson, founder of Anderson Pangia & Associates, the Winston-Salem firm representing Jones, told the Daily News his client was too ill to talk to the press about her case.

“Our firm does not seek to influence litigation by comments in the media,” he said. “All I can say is that we are thankful for the court’s well-reasoned decision and eager to proceed with comprehensive discovery to bring out the true facts of this case.”

The first motion to dismiss by the Navy elicited a response from Boyle last February that indicated the department had not followed its own rules regarding Camp Lejeune drinking water.

While the government argued that no standards existed for regulating the presence of Lejeune contaminants TCE and PCE in the early 1980s, when the chemicals were first discovered in the water, Boyle cited a 1982 report to Camp Lejeune’s commanding general describing the presence of TCE and PCE in amounts exceeding levels considered acceptable by the Navy’s own Bureau of Medicine.

“In sum, during at least part of Plaintiff’s residence at Camp Lejeune, the Department of the Navy had notice of the presence and toxicity of the chemicals at issue in the water supply of Camp Lejeune,” Boyle wrote. “And specific instructions were in place regarding the types of chemicals that plaintiff alleges were responsible for her injuries.”

The outcome of this lawsuit could have significant implications for everyone who lived on base during the three-decade period of contamination, a number estimated by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to exceed 500,000.

Marine Corps officials have declined in the past to discuss pending litigation.