The story of Erin Brockovich suing PG&E ends with a
settlement of $333 million dollars. According to Michael Asimow on http://usf.usfca.edu/pj//brockovich-asimow.htm,
“The killer document implicated the top management of PG&E in the Hinkley
cover-up. Under Calif. Civil Code §3294, in order to support a claim for
punitive damages against a corporation, it is necessary to show that an
officer, director or managing agent of the corporation ratified the wrongful
conduct. The document was clearly the key to the arbitrators' huge punitive
damage awards.”
David Pierson and Hemmy So from the Los Angeles Times state
that the settlement included an apology. “Clearly, this situation should never have
happened, and we are sorry that it did. It is not the way we do business, and
we believe it would not happen in our company today," the company said.
The lawsuit settlement is certainly not the end to this
story. Event today, there is still a negative cloud lingering over the town of
Hinkley, California. According to a story on Nightline by Alyssa Litoff, “It
turns out despite the settlement and the lawsuit, Hinkley's water problem never
got fixed. In fact, according to the Lahontan Water Board, the area of
chromium-6 contamination has grown in recent years.”
My personal opinion is that the settlement was supposedly
split between 1, 100 people. $295 million was divided between those people. My
calculations revealed that is only $268,181 per family. In my humble opinion,
that is certainly not enough money. It is good that Erin fought the case and at
least got them something to compensate, but that is just not enough money. Even
with proper medical care, these people are going to suffer for the rest of
their lives with health complications. Does that amount of money seem fair, or
enough? My guess is no.
No comments:
Post a Comment