Union Carbide Pretrial Hearings Consolidated

A special judicial panel, taking the first step Wednesday toward resolving the flurry of legal claims resulting from the deadly gas leak in Bhopal, India, ordered that federal lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages from Union Carbide Corp. be consolidated for pretrial proceedings in U.S. District Court in New York.

The seven-member Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation said the New York court would be the most efficient and convenient forum for the countless witnesses, lawyers and other parties involved in the cases. Union Carbide’s headquarters is located in nearby Danbury, Conn.

The panel assigned the cases to U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan in Manhattan for hearings that are expected to determine whether the dispute should be tried in this country or in India. The company has contended that the suits should be tried in India.

More than 2,000 persons were killed and more than 200,000 were reported injured when toxic methyl isocyanate gas was released from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal last Dec. 3. By recent count, 39 damage suits have been filed, almost all in federal courts, collectively seeking more than $200 billion on behalf of the victims. About 60 lawyers appeared recently in New Orleans when the judicial panel heard arguments on whether and where the suits should be consolidated.

Wednesday’s order does not preclude the Indian government from taking action over the disaster, nor does it prevent attempts to settle the suits out of court.

“An out-of-court settlement is always a possibility,” said Federico C. Sayre of Santa Monica, an attorney representing several hundred victims of the disaster.

Another attorney representing Indian victims, John P. Coale of Washington, said the consolidation could speed settlement negotiations. “I hope in a month or so we can get to the table to try to resolve this thing,” he said.

Bud G. Holman of New York, the attorney representing Union Carbide, said Wednesday that a settlement remains a possibility, adding that “here, it may be more called for, considering the dimension of the case.”

The proceedings in New York will involve the exchange of evidence and resolution of other pretrial issues--foremost, the question of whether the cases themselves should be tried in the United States or India.

The plaintiffs in the suits contend that this country’s court system would prove the fairest and most efficient for trial. But the company believes that, if the cases come to trial, they “could be most expeditiously handled in India,” a spokesman said Wednesday.

If and when the issue is formally raised by Union Carbide, it will be up to the company to prove that the Indian court system provides an adequate forum for the cases. Should the company lose such a bid, the cases could be tried either in New York or in the jurisdictions where they were originally brought, according to attorneys in the suits.