Judges Uphold Hearing Bhopal Suits in India : Ruling Eases Defendant’s Role in Pretrial Action

A panel of federal appellate judges agreed Wednesday with a lower court that lawsuits stemming from the 1984 poison gas disaster in Bhopal, India, should be heard in Indian courts.

But the panel of three judges, sitting in Manhattan, relieved giant chemical company Union Carbide of one condition of the lawsuits’ transfer that had been imposed by U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan. That condition was that the company agree to submit to U.S.-style pretrial discovery in the Indian courts, where it is being sued over its responsibility for the lethal accident by the government of India and other plaintiffs.

Discovery is the process by which each side in a lawsuit obtains documents and pretrial testimony from the other.

The gas leak on the night of Dec. 3, 1984, from a plant 51% owned by Union Carbide killed more than 2,000 persons and injured thousands more. The 145 lawsuits filed by plaintiffs against Union Carbide in U.S. courts were consolidated before Judge Keenan, who on May 12 ordered them in effect transferred to Indian jurisdiction.

Considered Victory

The ruling was considered a victory for Union Carbide, largely because damage awards to plaintiffs in Indian courts are much lower than those in the United States. But Union Carbide had argued that Keenan’s discovery condition imposed a disproportionate burden on the company since the plaintiffs were under no corresponding mandate to subject themselves to the broad standards of discovery. Discovery rules in India are far more confining than U.S. rules, the company argued.

Carbide appealed the discovery provision. At the same time, a number of U.S. attorneys representing Bhopal victims appealed Keenan’s transfer order.

In Tuesday’s ruling, the appellate judges agreed that Union Carbide should be tried under Indian discovery rules unless the plaintiffs agree themselves to be bound by the broader U.S. standards or unless the two sides agree on some intermediate equal standards.