A six-month timing gap can sever defendants from contamination they plausibly caused
Evidence
And here lay the significance of Braids’s opinion. Since vinyl chloride had not been detected on the Beatrice property until November 1985, that meant, said Braids, that TCE could not possibly have been dumped there more than six years ago, or before November 1979. The import of this was obvious. The city wells had been shut down in May 1979, six months before the Beatrice land could have been contaminated. The Woburn families may have been drinking well water laced with TCE but, according to Braids, that TCE could not have come from Beatrice. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2099
Categorization
- QUESTION: The entire case hinges on six months; how sensitive is the conclusion to an assumed three-to-six-year window versus a longer one?
- XREF: connects to: Causation gates liability; no contamination means no trial at all — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 1668; Diffuse, delayed harm forces plaintiffs to prove causation through epidemiological and documentary evidence — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2155; An arbitrary verdict date can disqualify most of the victims’ claims — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 2417 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Diffuse, delayed harm forces plaintiffs to prove causation through epidemiological and documentary evidence
#qualifies(1.00) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2155 - An arbitrary verdict date can disqualify most of the victims’ claims
#qualifies(1.00) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2417 - Resource asymmetry between parties lets well-funded defendants win through delay
#qualifies(1.00) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2156