A Civil Action

On January 7, 1985, Cheeseman and Facher depose Richard Aufiero, whose son, Jarrod died of leukemia. His testimony is so heartbreaking that Facher decides it will be best for his case if the plaintiffs never get to take the stand. Depositions continue for the rest of the month, but no one confesses to knowing anything about Beatrice and Grace dumping hazardous chemicals.

Three weeks later, Schlichtmann and Conway depose Al Love, the Grace plant’s receiving clerk. Love says that during the early stage of his career, he cleaned metal parts with a solvent that came from a drum in the paint shop. He says that he did, on occasion, see people dumping chemicals onto the ground, specifically naming Tom Barbas and Joe Meola, the maintenance man. He said they would just tip the barrels over into a ditch that led to an open brook. Love’s family has had a lot of health problems: miscarriages, seizures, and birth defects. Despite Cheeseman’s objections, Love continues to answer the questions. He says that he and his wife experience burning eyes from the water in their shower.

Soon, everyone at the plant knows of Love’s meeting with Cheeseman. Whenever someone asks him what’s happening, he says that he believes he’s on the wrong side of the lawsuit. On May 1, three weeks after being deposed, Love goes to see Anne Anderson. She convinces him to talk to Schlichtmann, and Love tells him that there are rumors of at least 50 drums being buried at the plant in the 1960s. During a new deposition, Barbas recants; he now remembers helping Joe Meola dump the barrels of waste. Meola denies everything. Though Schlichtmann still has questions about Grace’s use of TCE, he now has enough evidence to proceed.

The federal investigation put in motion by Al Love’s involvement throws the Grace plant in Woburn into a whirlwind. Barbas, Shalline, and four other employees are subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. Schlichtmann visits the Grace plant again in July. His new task is to prove that the dumped TCE made it into the city wells, which were approximately a half-mile away. He has a team of geologists and engineers perform the inspections. For four days, Schlichtmann’s experts work, overseen by Cheeseman’s experts.

In July, Judge Skinner grants an extension to the discovery period, giving them until January to prepare for trial. Schlichtmann deposes Riley about the tannery’s actions unsuccessfully, but a 1956 record from sanitary engineer A. C. Bolde proves he is lying. Others testify about the terrible odors and hazardous chemicals surrounding the plant. Schlichtmann next investigates Whitney Barrel, which supplied the drums, and learns it runs a dirty business, which could hurt his case against Riley.

Doctor Shirley Conibear, who specializes in health problems of industrial workers who had been exposed to toxins, performs tests on 28 of the Woburn family members and finds their symptoms strikingly similar. Next, a cardiologist does more extensive testing and finds all the subjects have irregular heartbeats. Neurological tests prove the family members have serious deficits in various areas, all of which track with TCE exposure. A biochemist and toxicologist theorize that TCE vaporizes in heat, making skin exposure through a hot shower six times more dangerous than ingesting the water.

At this point, Schlichtmann has 12 experts on staff. He brings them together for a meeting at the grand ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton and is encouraged by their results although it is a very expensive gesture. His geologists and engineers send him reports from Woburn. They have drilled 30 monitoring wells around the Aberjona marsh, which will give them an idea of which way the contaminants flow underground.

By the fall of 1985, Schlichtmann’s firm has spent almost $1 million on the case. He takes Conway and James Gordon, their financial adviser, to visit their banker. Gordon estimates that they’ll need at least another $.5 million to get through the remainder of the discovery period and the trial, which will last about six weeks. Their banker, Briggs, reminds Schlichtmann that they already owe $200,000 from a previous loan. Finally, he grants their request but takes the remainder of the Unifirst settlement as collateral.

The discovery period is the most contentious that Judge Skinner has ever seen. Each party files motion after motion against the other. Some are petty, and some are legitimate. Schlichtmann has the worse time of it. Skinner turns most of the rulings on the motions over to a favorite magistrate, and the magistrate has a long-standing grudge against Schlichtmann for a perceived slight, so his motions are denied more often than Facher’s and Cheeseman’s. Schlichtmann begins losing weight, and his hair starts to turn gray almost overnight. He spends all his time working on or worrying about the case.

When the opposition asks unexpected questions during their deposition of Schlichtmann’s experts, Schlichtmann becomes volatile and yells that they intentionally misled him. Skinner meets with the lawyers, and Facher and Cheeseman file new motions against Schlichtmann, hoping to censure him for his behavior. Skinner sends the motions to the magistrate for a decision.

The next day Schlichtmann is summoned to Judge Skinner’s chambers by a clerk who says he has never seen Skinner this angry. Skinner tells Schlichtmann that he is appalled by his behavior, particularly with his use of profanity during depositions. Schlichtmann is no longer allowed to speak during depositions unless he is following protocol. Schlichtmann agrees.

Facher begins referring to the meeting with Skinner as the Woodshed Conference. He is encouraged that he now knows about the Unifirst settlement, which was revealed in the depositions. It gives him hope that Schlichtmann might settle with them. He invites him to his office to talk. Schlichtmann brings Conway and Gordon. The meeting is congenial, but Schlichtmann refuses to provide a number that would satisfy him for a settlement, even though he admits that the case against Beatrice isn’t as strong as the one against Grace. He is willing to talk numbers in a neutral location, but not there. He leaves without a resolution. On his way out, Facher tells him that those Woburn families will never see the witness stand.