University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, October 7. 1986
7
Attorney describes India case
By ALISON YOUNG
On the surface, life seems to have returned to normal in Bhopal, India, the site of the world's worst industrial disaster, but the legal actions that began after the 1984 accident are still underway.
Bruce Finzen, one of four attorneys representing the government of India and all of the country's disaster victims in a case against Union Carbide, said yesterday that he expected the case to start trial in India in late 1987, if it isn't settled first.
All appeals should be completed by 1989, he said. Finzen spoke yesterday at an informal forum to about 15 people in Green Hall.
"It's a fairly straightforward case," Finzen said. "Ultimately, it all comes back to the design flaws in the Bhopal plant."
Finzen, who is a member of the Minneapolis law firm of Robins, Zelle, Larson and Kaplan, was in Lawrence to interview law students for the firm. Finzen graduated from the KU School of Law in 1973.
In 1984, a faulty valve at the Union Carbide Corp. pesticide plant in Bhopal released about 45 tons of methyl isocyanate, a deadly chemical used to make pesticides, into the air.
The accident left more than 2,000 people dead and more than 200,000 injured. Bhopal, population 672,000, is an industrial city 466 miles south of New Delhi.
Monetary damages are not specified in the Indian government's suit because the effect of the disaster is still being felt. Finzen said. An amount to be asked for will be determined right before a trial begins, he said.
Originally the suit was to be tried in the United States because the Indian legal system was inadequate to accommodate the case. Finney said.
He said there had been charges that the Indian government wanted the suit tried in the United States because of the larger damage awards available in this country.
However, Finzen said no government official ever mentioned damages to him.
Finzen's law firm was chosen for its experience in mass disaster litigation after three interviews with Indian government officials.
"It came as a great shock to all the Wall Street firms." he said.
Finzen said eastern firms didn't think any law was practiced west of the Hudson River, and that they were even more shocked that the case had been given to a couple of "priarie lawyers from Minnesota."
Finzen said the onslaught of attorneys who decended upon Bhopal "like locusts in the wake of the war with left a black mark on the legal profession.
By March 1985, more than 100 federal suits had been filed in various states by these attorneys on the behalf of Bhopal residents, he said.
Finzen said some victims might have signed a retainer with six or seven different U.S. attorneys and didn't know who would represent them.
In February 1985, the Indian government passed the Bhopal Disaster Process of Claims Ordinance which authorized the government to file a suit on the behalf of all victims.
By February 1986, more than 480,000 victims had signed retainer letters asking the government to release their records and also revoiled all prior retentions.
The case these victims signed with is the one Finzen is representing.
Because of the amount of liability evidence in India, the trial is now scheduled to be held there, Finzen said.
Union Carbide and the Indian government agreed to follow procedures like those found in U.S. laws for obtaining evidence. Also, the company agreed to abide by the Indian court's decision.
These agreements were made to compensate for the inadequacies of the Indian legal system, Finzen said. "The Indian forum now is fully operational."
On the record
Lawrence police reported that a 1980 Camaro, valued at $2,000, was taken between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sunday from a parking lot at Haskell Indian Junior College.
■ KU Police reported art supplies, valued at $188, were taken between 12:30 p.m. Friday and 6:30 p.m. Sunday from the Art and Design Building.
Original plaintiff frustrated
The Associated Press
inda Brown Smith comments on reopening of case
Linda Brown Smith said yesterday that she was disappointed that the Topeka Board of Education case had to be reopened.
"It is frustrating to me," she told an impromptu news conference. "But more than frustrating, it is disheartening. I find it dishearring to still have to fight for desegregation after 35 years.
"We still see that segregation is foremost in schools throughout the country. The concept of having totally desegregated schools has not come about after 35 years."
Smith, 43, was 7-year-old Linda Brown in February 1951 when the original Topeka school desegregation case was filed. Her name was listed first among 20 plaintiffs, the caption bore her name. She had to walk past a white neighborhood school to attend a segregated black elementary school.
The case was reopened in 1979 by 17 plaintiffs, including her two children, Charles and Kimberly Smith. These more recent plaintiffs say the Topeka school board has not done enough since the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision to bring about racial balance in Topeka schools.
Linda Brown Smith's children attended integrated Topeka schools, but they were schools on the city's east side that have heavy minority enrollments. The issue in the reopened case is whether Topeka has done everything possible to integrate its schools.
"My main complaint is . . . we're not satisfied with going to some sections of our city and seeing minority faces in those schools and very few white faces," Smith said. "Housing patterns are the problem, but I think we're going to have to look beyond that and find a solution."
"My concern is with my 5-year old grandchild and future generations coming on. You want the best education for them. I feel balanced schools will make that come true. We always have to keep a vigilance where education is concerned. You always have to be mindful of making progress."
Smith said she thought it was harder now to achieve the type of racial balance she wanted to see in schools than it might have been 32 years ago when the Supreme Court made its decision in the Brown case.
"I think the recommendations that can be made to bring about racial balance are harder to come about now," she said. "I'd like to see better balance — balance in terms of children of all nationalities and races."
She said that one option she sees for Topeka is busing. But she agreed that there was irony in her advocacy of busing because the original lawsuit's aim was to allow black children to attend their neighborhood schools and initiating a busing program would take them from their neighborhoods to schools across the city.
“There is an irony,” she said.
“But for the sake of racial balance in the school system, I believe in busing.
"We are looking for 100 percent. If it isn't reached this time, we'll try and try again. I only hope whatever comes about will finally end segregation in Topeka schools."
By a Kansan reporter
3 to appear in county court on drug charges this week
Three of the 21 people indicted in July on cocaine-related charges have hearings scheduled for this week in Douglas County District Court.
Dennis Barritt, 40, Lawrence, is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow for a public hearing.
Barritt has been charged with one count of selling cocaine, one count of delivering cocaine and one count of possession of cocaine.
After Barritt arrived late for a similar hearing Sept. 11, his hearing was continued to Sept. 15. At that hearing was continued to tomorrow.
Samuel Ruggles, 28, a former KU student, is scheduled to appear Thursday for a plea hearing.
Ruggles was indicted on two counts of selling cocaine and one count of possession of cocaine.
Wiedeman has been charged with three counts of selling cocaine.
William Wiedeman, 23, a former KU Interfraternity Council president, is scheduled to appear in court Friday, an appearance that was continued from Sept. 4.
Wiedeman, Ruggles and Barritt were indicted July 22 in Lawrence after an investigation by state and federal officials.
Slatterv agrees to debate Kline
By a Kansan reporter
the public's right to know, an open discussion should be held."
Phill Kline, the Republican nominee for the Kansas 2nd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, yesterday challenged his opponent, incumbent Rep. Jim Slattery, to a debate, and Slattery quickly accepted.
"Many questions have been raised during this campaign that have, at this date, still been unanswered," Kline said in the letter he delivered yesterday to Slattery's office in Topeka. "In the interest of
Later in the afternoon, Slattery responded in a statement: "Today's invitation from my opponent is the first I have received. I will be delighted to debate this opponent as I have all past opponents."
Renee Wessels, Slattery's press secretary, said that his calendar was full through Thanksgiving but that he could accommodate a debate. Slattery is completing his second term in the U.S. House.
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