Chapter 63 Section 13

That's it, William thought. On that alone, any jury would give W. R. Glass a "guilty" verdict and millions of dollars in punitive damages. While both previous motions were denied, that didn't stop William from filing a third motion with the court.As things stand now, the withdrawal of the lawsuit is out of the question.Among the several enterprises listed in the investigation report of the National Environmental Protection Agency, there is another one that uses TCE, and that is the United First Uniform Factory adjacent to the Food Machinery Factory.The factory produces work clothes for employees in various industries, which need to use TCE to clean cloth and other items.United No. 1 Uniform Factory has admitted that they once drained waste by mistake.

Maybe more than once, William thought. William then wrote the "Motion Concerning the United First Uniform Factory Should be Listed as a Joint Defendant in the Woburn Case".In this way, there will be three, not two, to share future compensation or fines.Moreover, it also greatly increased the plaintiff's workload, because Jane had to investigate and verify one by one to collect evidence from the defendants. This time, Judge Skinner granted William Cheeseman's motion, which was also unopposed by Jane Hilleman.But the United First Uniform Factory, which was forced to be buried by William, was not happy.As a joint defendant, the United First Uniform Factory should have cooperated with W. R. Glass and the Beeches Group, but now it turned its guns around and gave William Cheeseman a small embarrassment.The law firm of Godwin Plott Hall, representing United First Uniform Factory, negotiated a deal with Jane in private, willing to pay $1.5 million in damages in exchange for the plaintiff's withdrawal of the lawsuit.The two parties agreed to make an initial payment of US$400,000, and the rest to be paid in five years.

On a Saturday morning, Jane invited several families from the plaintiff's side to his office.Everyone readily accepted the mediation plan of the United First Uniform Factory, and also approved Jian En's proposal to use the first sum of money as a fund for continuing the lawsuit. Before the official trial of the case, there is a period of investigation called "finding out" by the lawyers, that is, the plaintiff and the defendant check each other's evidence that the other party may submit to the court, summon the witnesses that the other party may appear in court, and ask the other party for certain necessary information.

Richard Ofeno was the first plaintiff and witness to be "founded". On the first Monday in January 1985, Richard and his wife, Laura, woke up early to arrive at the law firm of Hillelman, Conway, and Connolly in Boston during their working hours.After arriving there, Jane Hilleman asked Laura to wait in the office, and he and Kevin Conway accompanied Richard to the Howler-Durr Law Firm not far away.In a palatial conference room, they met Gerald Fisher and William Cheeseman, who represented both defendants. Gero began by asking some questions about the health of the Orfino family. "Has your doctor ever told you that you have a dysfunctional immune system?"

"No," Richard replied, "but when my son died, the doctors said he was immune-compromised." Gero flipped through the medical records of Jarrod Ofeno: "It is mentioned that the cause of his death was typhoid fever. Do you know what happened?" The immediate cause of Garrod's death was indeed typhoid fever.But the doctor said that the little infection would not have killed the boy if the chemotherapy for leukemia had not damaged his immune system.Richard said: "He has been fine, a child who was alive and kicking, and died of leukemia in just three months."

Jero nodded and said, "You mean, after he was diagnosed with leukemia, the treatment was very effective at first, and you were all very optimistic. But then he suddenly fell ill and died right away?" "yes." "He died in the hospital?" "No, on Highway 93, I'm driving." Jero Fischer didn't know these details before, and all the surprises were written on his face: "You mean, Garrod died on the way to the hospital?" "He died on Highway 93," Richard repeated. "Just get to the Summerville exit. Let's turn off the highway and find the nearest fire station..." Richard said no Going down, tears fell down rustlingly.He picked up his water glass and drank it down.Kevin Conway covered his eyes with one hand.For a while, the conference room was silent.

Gerald Fisher always said to his students at Harvard Law School: "For a lawyer, some cases are impossible to lose, and some cases may be impossible to win." Now, Gero thought, I'm afraid I'm facing an impossible case to win.The plaintiff has a total of eight families, that is to say, there are eight heart-wrenching and tear-jerking stories.You can imagine it without any imagination. After hearing such a story, if you say it is the uncles and aunts in the jury, I am afraid that even the judge will cry.Gero thought, I should do everything I can to prevent the accusers from testifying, even though it is difficult to do.

The "finding out" of the 11 adults among the plaintiffs took a whole month, and Jane Hilleman attended all the hearings without stopping.Now it was his turn to call witnesses for the defense.Jane decided to start with W·R·Glass's food machinery factory. Paul Sharin is the director of the safety production department of the factory and has 13 years of working experience.But after two days and a total of 12 hours of hearings, Jane received only a series of denials and evasions.Paul even said he didn't know what happened to the six waste buckets that the EPA ordered to dig up.He's lying, Jane thought, but sooner or later I'll force the truth out of him.

The second witness was Thomas Barbus, a painter at the Food Machinery Factory.Jane invited him because mechanical parts need to be cleaned with TCE before painting, so the TCE in the factory is kept by the paint shop.Thomas admitted that when he first started working in 1961, he had poured TCE waste liquid into the gutter behind the factory building, "Later, I suggested to the boss that the waste paint and waste liquid should be collected in buckets first, and then the legal method should be adopted. Let's deal with it together." "You told Mr. Sharin that you shouldn't pour the waste liquid on the ground?" Jane asked.