A Civil Action

Facher asks Skinner for a seven-month extension, but Skinner refuses. Facher then proposes a settlement, and Schlichtmann’s team asks for $175 million. They want Beatrice and Grace to pay $25 million to a leukemia foundation, $25 million in cash, and the remainder to the families over 30 years. Conway is skeptical, thinking the numbers are far too high.

The settlement meeting is held at the Four Seasons the next morning. After being presented with the terms, Cheeseman and Facher walk out, as Conway predicted: The numbers are preposterous. Two weeks later, Skinner makes one more appeal for a settlement. Anne Anderson has just appeared on television saying that she doesn’t care about money. Skinner hopes the lawyers will follow suit, but they can’t come to an agreement. The case will go to trial.

When the jury is selected, a media frenzy begins. 60 Minutes does a piece on Woburn, speaking with Al Love and Anne Anderson at length. In an unusual move, Skinner questions each potential juror privately, so that he can feel that he has chosen correctly. In the end, both sides are forced to compromise and there is no clear advantage.

Schlichtmann enjoys the national attention. Nearly every major media outlet has reported that Woburn will be a landmark case. Skinner asks each side to prepare a brief outline: There are so many plaintiffs that Skinner fears that the jurors will be unable to keep up with all of the information. To keep the jurors focused, Schlichtmann and Nesson decide to use Anne and Jimmy’s story as an example that stands for all of the families. They will focus on proving that Grace and Beatrice contaminated the wells but will keep the amount of personal stories to a minimum.

Facher wants the trial to first determine whether any poisons from the Beatrice property got into the wells. If the jury exonerates Beatrice, they will be out of the case before questioning begins. Cheeseman wants to begin by determining whether TCE causes leukemia. After a week, Skinner decides to use an approach similar to Facher’s. If the jury finds Beatrice and Grace liable, then the second stage of the trial will delve into the medical questions.

The lawyers have two weeks to prepare after jury selection. During the second week, Jacobs asks if Schlichtmann will consider a settlement of approximately $1,000,000 to each family. Schlichtmann says he will call that evening with a response. That evening, Schlichtmann calls Jacobs to counter with $18 million. Jacobs never calls back.

Schlichtmann’s opening remarks outline the plight of the Woburn families and accuse Beatrice and Grace of heartlessly murdering their children. The speech has its intended effect and wins the jury to his side. Grace’s lawyer, Michael Keating, gives a brief opening statement, promising to prove that the amounts of dumped chemicals were negligible and that TCE does not have a clear link to leukemia. Facher speaks for over 90 minutes, although his remarks are nearly identical in substance to Keating’s. The jury grows noticeably restless during his speech.

Schlichtmann has two expert witnesses: geologist and professor John Drobinski and hydrologist George F. Pinder. Drobinski explains how the TCE spread from the aquifer made its way into Wells G and H, but Facher disrupts his testimony with endless objections. The jury loses the thread of the testimony as Facher drags out the proceedings for weeks. Next, Woburn witnesses report seeing barrels and piles of debris on the Beatrice land between the 1950s and 1970s. One man testifies that he saw men dumping wheelbarrows of sludge into a water ditch. All witnesses describe terrible odors and the constant movement of flatbed trucks through the area. Schlichtmann hopes to provoke Riley on the stand, but Riley remains calm and denies dumping the chemicals. The next day, however, Riley snaps at his own lawyer, Facher. Schlichtmann follows up and gets Riley to admit that there are no tannery records before 1979. When Schlichtmann asks when Riley destroyed the records, Riley again shouts about not using TCE. Skinner tells him to be quiet and reminds him to only answer the question he is asked.

As the trial drags on, Schlichtmann’s firm runs out of money, and Schlichtmann fears asking the bank for a loan. The money Phillips brings in from another case, nearly $240,000, will be used to pay outstanding bills for the Woburn case.

More witnesses are questioned and cross-examined for Beatrice. Thomas Mernin, a former Woburn city engineer, lived next to the wells for 30 years and testifies that the wells were not dangerous. However, Mernin is soon diagnosed with leukemia and passes away several months after his testimony.

Meanwhile, Gordon overdrafts their account, and their banker, Briggs, cuts off the firm’s credit. The Bank of Boston will no longer loan them any money.

The trial’s first phase winds down, with Keating defending Grace by blaming the polluted river for contaminating the wells. His groundwater expert, John Guswa, is convincing, but Schlichtmann—with Nesson’s help—gets Guswa to admit that groundwater from the Beatrice plant could still flow beneath the river and into the wells. On July 1, the lawyers, the judge, and the jurors visit Woburn and marvel that the contaminated wells are only a few hundred feet from the city.

The jury has one week off before they are sequestered. When they return, they find Skinner has issued a direct ruling that limits their ability to use certain evidence in their deliberations. Beatrice cannot be held liable for any actions prior to 1968, which means that Riley can claim ignorance about the wastes on his land contaminating the wells. The ruling also excludes the testimonies of witnesses who saw drums of chemicals on the land prior to 1968. Schlichtmann cannot follow Skinner’s logic in the ruling, which heavily undermines his case.

Skinner asks the lawyers to prepare questions they feel the jury must answer in order to render a verdict. The technical nature of the questions makes them almost impossible to understand, even for Skinner. However, Skinner believes that if the jurors truly cannot answer these questions, the case may be too complex to try in court to begin with. Nesson believes that the real problem lies with the fact that the judge decided to split the trial into two parts. If they had been able to present the case as a single, uninterrupted sequence, the symptoms of the victims would have lent credence to the scientific data concerning contamination.

The trial’s first phase ends on July 14. Facher and Schlichtmann give unmemorable speeches, and Facher objects throughout Schlichtmann’s remarks, throwing Schlichtmann out of rhythm. When he finishes, no one is sure if the jury is swayed in either direction.