The Region - News from Dec. 1, 1985

A multimillion-dollar lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles federal court on behalf of the relatives of six people killed and about 300 people injured in last year’s poison-gas disaster at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. More than 2,000 died and thousands more were injured Dec. 2 when a poisonous gas, methyl isocyanate, leaked into the air. Los Angeles attorney Oliver F. Moench said the suit seeks $10 million in general damages from Union Carbide because the company allegedly built the Bhopal plant without proper safeguards. Also, he said, the residents near the plant were not given adequate warning when the incident occurred. The suit also seeks $10,000 in special damages and $10,000 in punitive damages for each of the plaintiffs.