One Hour With Lemuel Srolovic - Principles

The Litigator for Acreage Brain Cancer Victims Speaks

Nov 2, 2009

This article is the conclusion to a one hour interview with Mr. Srolovic. Here, he speaks to charges of ambulance-chasing and other companies' possible poor conduct.

As the Lead Investigator for Weitz & Luxenberg, the firm mounting the research and potential lawsuit by residents of Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee and the Acreage in Palm Beach County, Florida, Lemuel "Lem" Srolovic wields great authority and power. This is the final portion of an interview held on the morning of October 30th, 2009. Mr. Srolovic was kind enough to grant this audience in response to a request from citizens of the area. Weitz & Luxenberg is the firm with which Erin Brockovich is currently associated.

Although Pratt and Whitney has maintained a manufacturing plant not far from this area, no direct evidence has been found to date indicating any wrongdoing on their part or linking them to any cause of harm to these residents.

Illegal Dumping and Poor Conduct

(Suite101) What about the possibility of illegal dumping? What is the next step of the firm should illegal dumping be found to be a cause or one of the causes?

(Lemuel) I can't say what we would do in finding any particular evidence or particular cause or contributor to the problem. Generally speaking, illegal dumping is a matter of environmental concern, it does happen. Based on the evidence I've seen in the Acreage community, it is kind of hard to imagine that it would be so widespread and provide such a result for the large number of illnesses in the community. That would be a lot of illegal dumping.

(Suite101) What about the possibility of the contamination occurring as a result of burying, dumping or even just open-air storage of pollutants prior to their being made illegal?

(Lemuel) That happens all the time. What we often see in environmental cases is that practices that were problems and that were risky and that did not comport with the available state of the art technology cause harm decades after. The hazardous waste laws in this country went into effect in November 1980 because of the illegal dumping. As an example, Hooker Chemical had deposited thousands and thousands [of chemicals] in an abandoned canal: the Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York. Those actions caused an inordinate amount of harm. Did [the company] comport itself with a reasonable a standard of care? [The courts] imposed liability on those companies for that conduct. Sometimes the effect of waste disposal goes back many decades, and is ultimately the source of the problem.

(Suite101) What will the firm do if a large company is found to be at fault, but that company refuses to pony up?

(Lemuel) Generally speaking, if a large company is found to be responsible for harm or injury in a community and it is necessary to pursue a lawsuit...typically a company will pay. Typically their only option if not to do that is to put the company in bankruptcy. Many companies are reluctant to do that. We have certainly seen a large host of this in the asbestos context but it is not necessarily the end of the line.

(Suite101) Should your firm find that there was a large company at fault for environmental pollution, but this pollution occurred as a result of legal, inspected and approved storage, will the firm attempt to set precedent and hold the company liable?

(Lemuel) It would not be a precedent. Let me give you an analogy. If the state limit is 65 and you were driving 60 mph and you passed a police officer, you were driving legally, but that does not mean you were driving safely. You could be intoxicated, your car may not have been maintained in a safe manner, reasons having nothing to do with the speed. Chemicals stored in an approved manner does not necessarily establish a standard of reasonable care; it does not determine the question.

(Suite101) Your firm has been accused of ambulance-chasing, and finding deep pockets in Pratt & Whitney to go after. Why hasn't the firm gone after the company in the Lakeland , Florida, area that caused massive Radon exposure to thousands of families, forcing entire communities of tens of thousands to abandon their homes? Those homes lie empty to this day, and will for many, many years. So, why this community? Why this fight among all the others?

(Lemuel) The reason we launched an investigation in the Acreage community is because we received many requests from residents in that community directly. Erin Brockovich also received many requests from residents in the Acreage to find out what was behind the high level of brain cancers in the community, to come and investigate what is behind that illness and if there is legal redress available.

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