A Civil Action

Civil Action

The book, Civil Action, is based on a true case and it highlights the suffering of a small community in Boston in 1970s. The story revolves around the case of Ms. Anne Anderson, a resident of Woburn in 1970s, who discovered much to her horror that her child, a three-year-old boy was suffering from leukemia. While the disease itself was not that strange or uncommon, what aroused her suspicions was the fact that many children had suffered from the same illness in her area in a relatively short period of time. Woburn was an industrial town and the exposure to chemicals was believed to be the cause of this tragedy.

During this period, many other children had exhibited the same signs and symptoms and thus the people of the town decided to raise a voice against industries that would dump chemical waste in water hubs of the town. Thus Civil Action revolves around this case and how it was fought. National Research Council in 1991 found that there was absolutely no connection between industrial waste dumping and water supply of this area. There were no traces of contamination due to chemical exposure because most industries were using dumping points, which minimized the risk of exposure to chemicals.

This case involved a successful lawyer Jan Schlichtmann who decided to represent the people of Woburn, Massachusetts against the industrial giants of the area. While leukemia had been a major illness for some time, Ms. Anderson was the first person to suspect that something might be wrong with the water that was being supplied to this area. She lodged a complaint against industries and their waste dumping methods but nothing much transpired for her. That is when she took it to legal circles and Jan Schlichtmann came into the scene. Jan had a potentially strong case but without much sound evidence.

During the trial, he had to face two great industrial giants of the area namely W.R. Grace & Co. And Beatrice Foods. Eight families had filed this lawsuit and even though they won against the two industries, the victory was not of much use to anyone. There had been no legal verdict in the sense that the case resulted in a compromised settlement between the two parties since Schlichtmann was left without enough funds to proceed further with the trial. In this settlement, the plaintiffs were offered $8 million. However the costs of trial and other expenses consumed a large part of this money leaving the lawyer with very little for himself or the people he represented.