Content Of Class Instruction On The Movie ' A Civil Action '

Gerald M. Stern’s novel, The Buffalo Creek Disaster, helps students better understand the civil procedure process by describing the process through an actual case Stern himself litigated. The case began in 1972 after a dam collapsed in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, killing 125 people and destroying many homes. Other than property damage and loss of loved ones, those who survived suffered what Stern referred to as psychic impairment, or mental suffering. Stern’s lawsuit involved 625 plaintiffs suing the Pittston Coal Group, or the stockholder of the Buffalo Mining Company, for compensatory and punitive damages. Stern had to choose a court and a judge, decide how much relief the plaintiffs were seeking, depose witnesses, and work with the defendant’s counsel

A Civil Action is about an environmental pollution court case in Woburn, Massachusetts. The case focused on an industrial solvent, trichloroethylene, from a local leather company, which contaminated a local aquifer that eventually had lethal consequences on the inhabitants of the town. After Anne Anderson’s son dies of leukemia, she filed a civil lawsuit along with eight other families against The John J. Riley Tannery by Beatrice Foods and Cryovac Manufacturing W. R. Grace Company because their industrial operations correlated to fatal cases of cancer and leukemia in children as well as other health issues reported among the citizens. Anne implored Jan Schlichtmann, a tenacious personal injury specialist, to take the case. When Schlichtmann

The citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act is an important tool to protect and improve rivers, creeks, streams, and wetlands especially as state agencies may not have the resources to conduct regular water quality monitoring on every water body. Citizen involvement in monitoring and reporting pollution problems is key to watershed protection; hereby helping the government enforce the laws.

By this time I had obtained courage to speak out against topics of that were controversial or even at the least uncomfortable for me. The class was structured around climate change and sustainable energy. There was harmonious agreement that water bottles were inefficient and not needed at the university. The opinion further spread to doing away with all water bottles because they were contributing to the decline of the environment. While I agreed water bottles were bad for the planet, I thought about times they were useful in third world countries,not only in third world countries but even in the United States. I was slightly upset because this was after the water crisis in Flint, Michigan had occurred. There was no mention of the importance of water bottles for those in crisis. I was also sensitive because I could recall a time where segregation forced people to drink from two separate fountains. Packages of water bottles were donated were being sent to families affected, I watched this story on the news. I watched this story because Flint, Michigan had a very high population of african-americans affected by this water contamination. Race in my mind, plays a valuable factor when it comes to climate change. The environmental justice movement had gone hand in hand with the civil rights movement. The environmental justice movement sought to stop the minority from paying the consequence of poor

A civil action covers the case of Anne Anderson, et al., v. Cryovac, Inc., et al. It deals with the negligence in regards to the proper storage, disposal and handling of trichloroethylene, which is an industrial solvent and had contaminated the town’s local aquifer. The movie is based on a nonfiction book that cover the case and provides more details in regards. Though Travolta’s character lost his case, in the end, the Environmental Protection Agency, used the information from the case to eventually prosecute the companies responsible for the spill and had them clean up.

DuPont let the hazardous pollution in the water and air go without notifying the people which directly relates to Holmes idea of “How much can I get away with before bringing the power of the state upon me.” He believes that Law is not just a bunch of rules, rather it is a flexible social institution. The people who are fighting the DuPont case can relate to the universal ideal. The towns people are involved with the wrong doing of DuPont and the law. The DuPont people feel as though the laws were violated and they were not treated equally, being as DuPont is a large corporation and the victims are just one single

The article from the Huffington Post entitled Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia: Home to the most brazen, deadly corporate gambits in U.S. history describes the atrocities performed in part by the DuPont chemical plant in West Virginia. The plant was dispersing its hazardous chemicals into the streams and landfills. The hazardous chemical known as C8 was causing extreme health effects to the local residents of the town of Parkersburg. People were getting severely ill and people’s cattle were dying faster than they could be replaced. Yes, these acts were heinous, but the worst of it all was the fact that the company had so much control of the area that they were able to keep doing what they were doing and only face minor penalties if any…sickening. So basically the lesson here is, if you have money and the resources, you can control just about anything. DuPont had both, and that is why they were able to do what they did. C8, or Perfluorooctanoic acid was the chemical that was causing the massive health issues across the state. People were wanting to sue DuPont for the takeoff of C8 being into the water that they were partaking in.

In the film, A Civil Action, Trial Procedure was shown throughout the entire movie. There are many steps that need to be completed before a verdict and judgment can be reached. These steps are the pleadings, methods of discovery, pretrial hearings, jury selection, opening statements, introduction of evidence, cross examinations, closing arguments, instructions to the jury, and the verdict and judgment. The case in this movie was actually called Anderson v. Cryovac. The plaintiffs are the Anderson family, the Gamache family, the Kane family, the Robbins family, the Toomey family, and the Zona family. The plaintiffs’ attorneys are Jan Schlichtmann, Joe Mulligan, Anthony Roisman, Charlie Nesson, and Kevin Conway. The two co- defendants are

Education has been a staple necessity throughout the United States for years. From an early age, children attend school in order to learn concepts that will better prepare them for success in the future. Since Brown v. Board of Education, a nineteen fifty four court case that declared segregation in the United States public school system holds no ground, integration has been essentially mandated between blacks and whites in the education program (Hannah-Jones, 2014). Over the years, however, the system has received many alterations, such as a division between blacks and whites through poverty, that challenges the ideas of integration in the school system. These new economic and social issues bring into question whether or not the school

An integrative outcome I could imagine for this public dispute would be for Flint’s government officials to revert back to using the original water utility of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) while the DWSD lowers the cost of their services. The DWSD benefits from this because they are in business again as Flint will be using it as it mains water utility, and Flint benefits from this because safe drinking water will be accessible to its resident’s again. This integrative outcome is discussed in chapter 3 of Lewicki’s readings, and it could be accomplished in this dispute through focusing on the commonalities the two parties’ have; Flint needs clean water, and DWSD wants to provide that water. The issue here is cost and if a deal can be made where DWSD lowers the cost but is compensated in some way, then both parties will be benefitting. Both party’s reputation is in jeopardy, and action needs to be made to in order to address interests. New options (such as the compensation) could be made in order to find a mutual gain, and the exchange of ideas should be free-flowing and honest throughout this integrative approach. The value that needs to be created is the most important aspect of this integrative outcome, however, both parties would benefit from creating that value rather than claiming it.

In Boston, Massachusetts, small groups of families sued US companies due to the constant leukemia and health deaths, caused by the poisonous chemicals dumped in the water, which got flowed into the communities water supply. Anne Anderson discovered that her child had leukemia. Searching for the cause, its discovered that there's a cluster of children with leukemia. Anderson, as well as the other families affected by the water, evolve into a law suit against two large companies.

In Libby, Montana, a corporation by the name of Zonolite used to mine vermiculite ore from years 1919 to 1990. Vermiculite was used in many households within Libby as well as across the United States. It’s is known to contain asbestos, which is harmful to the lungs and may cause malignant mesothelioma (1). In 1968, W.R. Grace took over the Zonolite company, being fully aware of the dangers that asbestos possess. He failed to acknowledge the workers at the Zonolite plant about asbestos. The workers of Zonolite used to work with passion, loving what they do for a living. There weren’t many jobs for a town that held less than 3,000 residence. Therefore, working for Zonolite for Libby residence was the main option for many families to have great amount of income in the household (2). Grace used to be fully involved, not only with Zonolite, but with the entire Libby community. He used to be involved with the school board, hospital board, and he even gave away vermiculite for Libby residence to use for their house installation. How can someone involved in the community be so ignorant by not publicizing that vermiculite contains asbestos? This is where Grace wanted Zonolite to dominate the vermiculite industry, regardless of the health risks involved. This shows the unethical business attributions that the Zonolite company adheres to.

Erin Brockovich, an unemployed single mother, is in desperate need to find a job. Following a traffic accident with a doctor, Erin is suing him, however, the lawsuit becomes overturned. After pleading with her attorney, Ed Masry, to hire her at his law firm, Erin stumbles upon some medical records in a real estate file. She then convinces Ed to allow her to investigate the case involving Pacific Gas & Electric Company, where she discovers that the company is quietly buying land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, and in turn is improperly and illegally dumping and poisoning the residents in the community through the city’s water supply. As Erin digs deeper into this environmental issue, she finds herself in a series of events that

Throughout the film, a small law firm brings to court several companies near a Woburn river to be accused of shedding extremely polluting products (Solvent, trichlorethylene and Silicone) that appear to be related to death and worsening of the health of some local residents due to leukemia and cancer.

In 2015, the Environmental Law Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Central Coast Regional Water Control Board for keeping pollution information hidden from farmers in violation of the California