Union Carbide Suits Merged

All lawsuits filed against Union Carbide Corp. in the chemical leak disaster in Bhopal, India--totaling billions of dollars in damages--have been consolidated in federal court in New York, a judicial panel announced today.

The Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation said it assigned the case to U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan. Lawyers for Union Carbide had fought to have the suits tried in India, where more than 2,500 people were killed when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the firm’s Bhopal pesticide plant last Dec. 3.