Customer Reviews

A Civil Action

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This book is a depressing lesson in the ways that our judicial system don't work. An adverserial system of justice, by its very nature, leads not to an inquiry into the truth but instead to a polarized system where each side is fighting for its own side and disinterested in the merits of its opposition.

While this book was, in many ways, a real downer, it was also a fascinating chronicle of litigation. I was immediately drawn in my the families' tragedies, Schlichtmann's flawed but good-hearted optimism, and the interaction between the lawyers and the judge. As Schlichtmann swirled deeper into debt, I found it impossible not to feel a growing sense of desparation along with him. The ending is bitterly disappointing, but in many ways the families eventually got what they wanted with subsequent EPA actions and criminal prosecutions.

My husband and I are both attorneys. Last year, he was involved in a case in which the outcome was simply criminal. I felt I could relate in a deeper sense to the drama in A Civil Action after experiencing such a travesty of justice firsthand. We have to work within the confines of the flawed legal system that exists now, but we must accept that it is far from perfect. Judges and juries--as humans--get things wrong all the time. This book, in gripping prose, demonstrates this basic fact of life in all too vivid of detail.

I know a person who worked for Grace Corp.,one of its defense subsidiaries in Woburn, who was told they had been extensively investigated by the Justice Dept and FBI to work there.When this person requested their record with these agencies, both branches refused to provide copies or access to it.

This person was forced to sign an agreement with the U.S. government not to file bankruptcy in the future or lose the job and all benefits.

In 1995 when this book came out the person's medical records disappeared and the person became a victim of financial and character assassination, as if forcing the individual to violate this agreement and file bankruptcy anyway because they had no choice. Later, individuals alleging business linkage to this Grace subsidiary in Woburn and family or friendship ties to the FBI branches in Boston and surrounding areas began an intimidation campaign against this person.

This person had worked as a safety and/or environmental person with Grace corp, and been ousted under hostile and questionable circumstances and later blackballed in work references.Today the person is homeless and joblessand has been ruined in almost every way imaginable.Jan Schlictmann paid a price but this individual paid a higher one.

This case is fundamentally about responsibility. Corporations by design exist to conduct business with a much higher degree of protection than that afforded to a private citizen. Even if a company is found guilty of anything, the fines imposed are absorbed by laying off workers and the legal fees ultimately passed back to the customer. If an employee observes questionable activity in the company they risk alienation from peers, blocked career growth, or even termination by 'making waves' in the organization. If an outside agency like EPA comes in, they must counterweigh potential layoffs to any fines they might impose. A hidden sleeping giant in regulating corporation responsibility might be insurers of the business, who stand to lose large sums of money in liability cases. In examining this case, one might wonder if there is a relationship between environmental pollution and the ultimate handling of the cleanup. If companies pollute and the EPA ultimately comes in, dispenses funds to orchestrate the cleanup, and remediation contractors are called in, don't the contractors for EPA have a ready business source? Could some of the biggest polluters be friendly to the cleanup companies with which the EPA contracts?

This book centers around a town in a county prosperous in technology.Middlesex county was a hub of activity in the early 1960s and the synchrony of events precipitated by the introduction of this book in 1995 is curious. In 1995 Whitey Bulger disappeared with that convoluted case ensuing a tragedy for all parties involved. Whitey is said to have had a girlfriend in the area and many FBI agents in this case hail from the area. George Cashman, head of Teamsters Local 25 has been a Woburn resident. Cashman has been supportive of former governor (and now Ambassador) Paul Cellucci. In addition to FBI agents, there are undoubtedly many agencies represented as family members in the strata of constituents of Middlesex county.

In this case you have 2-3 companies held accountable. The only company which admitted a measure of responsibility in the tragedy is Grace. In the region there may have been 60-100 firms doing business with varying levels of dumping going on at a time predating EPA and RCRA ( establishing EPA) and that dumping was legal. Part of the problem in this case might have been a confusion over regulatory oversight. The Slichter Act empowered the state to intervene in matters of public safety.The Slichter Act was formed in the late 1940s in the wake of Mob violence breaking up a strike.

The problem with Grace is that it has repeatedly been involved with environmental controversies.

What would have happened if a company had dumped legally but later openly admitted that it had done so and began the process of cleanup and making ammends? Sometimes telling the truth engenders as much punishment as not telling the truth. Under these circumstances, why would anyone come forward?

Why does chemical irresponsibility occur at all... are the disposal costs in removal and employee time in properly resolving the disposal that injurious to the bottom line? Don't most of us also share in environmental lapses? If you have ever changed your car's oil or antifreeze, most likely you have polluted inadvertently as the fluid hits the ground.

WR Grace hailed TIAA-CREF,the academic world's largest private pension fund and a majority shareholder in Grace. On the board were also Alan Fiers of the CIA and Zbignew Brezinski, former NSA chief as well as Peter Lynch of Fidelity Investments.

Jan Schlictmann has lost most if not all of any proceeds from this case to Cadle Co. after the Boston Trade Bank failed.

Grace is/was a company very politically connected who hired former government officials, such as from EPA or OSHA,etc.

Many more families than just the ones in this case were affected, including families from the Woburn/Burlington side.

Was the severity of this case downplayed? Why were the court records (about 190,000 pages) of this case thrown away after the book was written? Why are some of the obituaries and other info relevant to the history of Woburn excluded from the microfilm of local newspapers? Were some kids involved in the Woburn epidemic enrolled in secret medical experiments and then tracked or automatically inducted into government service later as a result of such treatments? Was the handling of the water pollution and long term exposure of thousands of people in Woburn and surrounding communities an experiment? Did one of the kids in the case not die? Many unanswered questions!

I know someone i'll refer to as " JR" who worked for one of the big companies of which thise case involves. Not long after going there JR was approached and chastized by more senior employees for entering into a service agreement with "those damned Bonanno brothers". The problem with this is that JR came AFTER the contract was made between the parties. It soon became apparent JR had become a whipping boy for the company.JR was harassed for being environmentally aggressive in stopping chemical waste dumping in Woburn and other communities.

Jan Schlictmann has paid a personal and professional price in this case as has Ken Grant, a former safety/environmental man for Grace Co. Since this book came out, Grant has been blackballed from employment in Massachusetts and eventually forced into bankruptcy and homelessness. Grant was orphaned and raised in state care and later became active in many volunteer organizations in Massachusetts. When this book came out he was fired and later driven from Massachusetts through circumstance and hostile forces.Perhaps Grant and Schlictmann should meet.

In the early 1960s, NASA was looking to put a research center in Woburn that may have been perceived as competition for funding for New England military bases, like the Boston Navy Yard.The land around the area mentioned by this book was quite controversial and there were many more than 6-8 families affected by cancer in the wake of pollution of the local groundwater. It could have been stopped with the implementation of the Slichter Act, designed for public safety. This book highlights one controversial case involving 3 major companies,WR Grace the primary one along with Beatrice foods. Grace is a company that had at one time a former national security advisor (Zbignew Brezinski), CIA officer (Al Fiers) and Peter Lynch of Fidelity Investments (newspapers listed this info)...

Two major program were competing for federal funds when the first signs of an epidemic emerged in Woburn in the 1960s: a) NASA space center, and b) Boston Navy Yard. Living in Woburn were the chairmen of two committees:a) Mayor Gilgun of the NASA for Woburn committee and b) Carl Roessler of the Save Our Shipyard committee. Former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill was a staunch supporter of both WR Grace and the Boston Navy Yard. As the push for increased space funds continued, military bases were being scaled back. After JFK was shot, the space program faltered somewhat and the military,specifically the Boston Navy Yard, flourished. Roessler was also the President of Trans-Sonic Corp, a supplier of flow measurement devices and presumably with heavy govt contracts. As local and national stressors pushed the country into a traditional guns vs butter economic model. the push seemed to be more for peace,hence space, than war. And Woburn was in the middle of this monumental battle. NASA never came,and this left a void in fresh jobs to Mass which was then filled by industrial developers who built industrial parks in the polluted areas which later provided space for businesses to come in and gave Woburn one of the lowest if not the lowest property taxes in the state. The whole area was teeming with miltary and space personnel.In addition ,the water pollution could be seen to have effects not just in Woburn but in : Winchester,Burlington, Reading, Stoneham, and perhaps even as far away as Arlington as polluted water meandered its way through a river,underground aquifers, and perhaps even leakage into newly emerging MDC water sewer trunks.Underground aquifers may have funneled polluted waters into spring fed ponds as well. Union strife among public works employees and leather union employees set the stage for scenarios we see now in the year 2000. An estimated 24+ organized crime families operated around the country and Joe Valachi and the Mass. Crime Commission were in full tilt.A small group of citizens in north Woburn led by attorney Michael Gatta filed a $100,000 suit against the city demanding an explanation for funny smelling water. Voyager and Apollo programs were well under way in the area, and wide opportunities were available as infrastructure developments as Route 128- " America's Technology Highway" was being built and the Kennedy height of power brought new opportunities to Mass. In the fight for NASA, the states of New York, New Jersey,Pennsylvania,Connecticut, Michigan all wanted NASA in their states. Woburn had almost become like Cuba in the Cuban missile crisis,both beloved and feared.