India Court Delays Union Carbide Case

A court agreed Thursday to delay legal action on thousands of claims against Union Carbide Corp. until an American judge rules whether they should be tried in the United States or India.

The ruling by a Bhopal district judge, Ram Murty Rastogi, granted an Indian government request for a temporary stay on more than 5,000 claims against Union Carbide of India, its U.S. parent company, the central state of Madhya Pradesh, and the Indian government.

The cases were filed by victims of the worst industrial accident in history. More than 2,000 people were killed and thousands more were injured when a lethal cloud of methyl isocyanate, used to make pesticide, escaped from Union Carbide’s factory in Bhopal on Dec. 3, 1984.

In Thursday’s ruling, the Bhopal court agreed that any proceedings in India were likely to be “detrimental to the interests of the victims themselves” as long as the American court has still not ruled on the jurisdiction issue.