Veterans to Get Less in Agent Orange Settlement

Eligible Vietnam veterans and their families will get less money than expected from the Agent Orange settlement, and they will wait at least a year before receiving any, a federal judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein approved a final plan for disbursing the $200-million settlement, allotting three-fourths of it to totally disabled veterans and the survivors of dead veterans.

He estimated that the largest individual payments would be about $12,800 for total disability and $3,400 for death benefits, down from previous estimates of $25,000 and $5,000.

Paid Over 10 Years

The money, from seven chemical companies--Dow Chemical Co., Diamond Shamrock Corp., Monsanto Co., Hercules Inc., Uniroyal Inc., Thompson Chemical Corp. and T. H. Agriculture & Nutrition Co.--would be paid out over 10 years from an $180-million fund, now estimated at nearly $200 million with interest.

Weinstein’s plan generally follows one recommended by a court-appointed special master in February, but estimated individual payments will be lower because the latest figures include a larger pool of potential recipients. The judge said that about 245,000 claims had been filed.

When the settlement was announced on May 7, 1984, 16,000 veterans had registered with the court as potential victims.

Could Take a Year

The judge also said that the money cannot be distributed until all appeals are resolved, a process he said could take at least a year.

Weinstein said that $45 million would be used for “a class assistance foundation” for veterans and their families. About $4 million, or 2% of the fund, would go “for the benefit of Australian and New Zealand claimants,” Weinstein said.

Frank McCarthy, president of Vietnam Veterans Agent Orange Victims Inc., called the disbursement program “the end of legal fighting and the beginning of a new era.” But Michael F. Ryan, one of the first veterans to sue over Agent Orange, a code name for a defoliant used to clear jungles, said that there was no specific provision in the judge’s decision for veterans’ children born with defects.

The suit was filed on behalf of all American, Australian and New Zealand troops who served in Vietnam between 1961 and 1972 and who claimed injury from exposure to Agent Orange.