gordon.coale
 
Home
 


Weblog Archives

   
 
  Monday  February 25  2002    01: 30 PM

Corporatism

A couple of good links from also not found in nature.

Monsanto Held Liable For PCB Dumping

An Alabama jury yesterday found that Monsanto Co. engaged in "outrageous" behavior by releasing tons of PCBs into the city of Anniston and covering up its actions for decades, handing 3,500 local residents a huge victory in a landmark environmental lawsuit.

The jury in Gadsden, Ala., a town 20 miles from Anniston, held Monsanto and its corporate successors liable on all six counts it considered: negligence, wantonness, suppression of the truth, nuisance, trespass and outrage. Under Alabama law, the rare claim of outrage typically requires conduct "so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society."

After a six-week trial on liability, the case now proceeds to a damages phase. Solutia Inc., the corporation formed when Monsanto spun off its chemical division in 1997, has already spent $83 million to settle two other PCB cases in Anniston as well as $40 million on cleanup costs. Shares in Solutia, the lead defendant in the case, plunged 34 percent, to $5.80, after yesterday's verdict. Overall, Solutia share prices have plummeted 59 percent from $14.02 since a Jan. 1 article in The Washington Post revealed Monsanto documents showing that the company routinely dumped PCBs in Anniston and covered up its behavior for more than 40 years.
[read more]

More efficient efforts for Corporate mind control...

Penetrating the Mind by Metaphor