Coldwater Creek Lawyers: "We Expect to Prevail"

Since U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig made a ruling to dismiss all but one claim in lawsuits filed against Mallinckrodt (now Covidien, which is based in the City of Hazelwood) regarding Coldwater Creek's radioactive contamination and its link to their cancers and other illnesses, lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case assert all isn't what it appears.

Co-lead counsel Marc Bern said although some of the lawsuits claims were dropped, it's more of a matter of the kind of claims dropped; state vs. federal if you will.

"The judge essentially found the state claims were redundant," Bern said at Wednesday's meeting. "They were preempted by the Federal law of Price-Anderson.

"Based on that finding, Fleissig ordered plaintiffs in the Coldwater Creek litigation to amend their complaints, which in their current form claim radiation levels at the three storage sites (St. Louis Airport, Hazelwood Interim Storage Site, and Coldwater Creek) were in excess of federal dose limits without claiming a specific level of exposure for each individual plaintiff."

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Bern said the ruling was not surprising, and said the amended suit will be consistent with Fleissig's ruling in which she found prior cases citing the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act (PAA).

PAA is a federal ruling passed in 1957 that governs liability-related issues for all non-military nuclear facilities constructed in the United States before 2026. It was designed to ensure adequate funds would be available to satisfy liability claims of members of the public for personal injury and property damage in the event of a nuclear accident.

Fleissig did give lawyers for the residents a May 10 deadline to show the injuries occurred no more than five years before the suit was filed and to link direct levels of exposure, to meet Missouri’s statute of limitation rules and PAA. Read more about the ruling here.

"Although Price-Anderson established criteria that might be difficult to meet, the Court has nevertheless provided us with a path to recovery," Bern said. "Tens of thousands of innocent Americans living in the area over the past 70 years have been unknowingly exposed to some of the worst toxins on earth causing cancers and other very serious illnesses and death in many instances. 

"We expect to prevail for these innocent victims and end this terrible nightmare for so many people.”

Many in attendance Wednesday were former Boeing and McDonnell Douglas employees, and their families, that worked on a site determined to have excessive amounts of radioactive material detected just off James S. McDonnell Boulevard and Banshee Road in Hazelwood.

A Missouri Department of Natural Resources - Hazardous Waste Program report from 2008 showed traces of thorium in rainwater following a heavy rain.

"During recent rain events in the St. Louis area, an excavation, located between Banshee Road and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport was filled and overtopped with stormwater. The Corps removed the water from Banshee Road and tested the road surface for contaminants. The stormwater was impacted with trace amounts of Thorium. Corrective measures were immediately taken to address the surface runoff."

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There are currently more than 6,000 active members of a community action Facebook Page devoted to investigating the possibility of a cancer cluster around the creek entitled: Coldwater Creek Just the Facts Please, as well as a Coldwater Creek blog spot.

If you think your illness may be linked to the creek there is a form tracking all instances. To fill it out click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/coldwater_creek_missouri

Click here to read Coldwater Creek Nuclear Contamination News Updates and the history of The Manhattan Project.