Presently, I represent several United States Marines who were stationed at the Camp Lejeune Military Base during the period between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987, who were exposed to contaminated water at the base during the time they were stationed at Camp Lejeune. These individuals spent at least thirty (30) days living, working or otherwise being exposed to this contaminated water and, as a result, have suffered from medical conditions and diseases that are linked to this exposure. Generally, these conditions include, but are not limited to, bladder cancer, Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, scleroderma, female infertility and fibroids, kidney cancer, and other designated conditions. Military veterans, their family members who were stationed there or who were exposed to these chemicals in utero, and civilian workers at the Camp are being compensated pursuant to this new federal statute. However, to qualify, it is necessary to first exhaust your administrative claims through a Federal Tort Claims Act filing for damages with the United States Department of the Navy, its JAG, which reviews these claims. The statute of limitations for these matters is the latter of two years from the administrative denial of these claims or two years from enactment of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.
If you are suffering from a disease or condition linked to Camp Lejeune’s contaminated water, you must act quickly because in less than 70 days, your opportunity for justice may end.
Separate from this federal remedy for Military Veterans and others at Camp Lejeune, Pennsylvania Courts provide a civil remedy in the Courts to workers who have been exposed to harmful chemicals that cause disease by their employers. In one case, I represented a worker at a manufacturing plant who was exposed to trichloroethylene (“TCE”), a degreasing agent, which is known to cause non-Hodgkins lymphoma. However, his condition was not identified until after he stopped working at the manufacturing plant. Consequently, his exposure and resulting occupational disease were not covered by the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act. But, our client was not without a civil remedy because in 2013, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that such workers could sue their former employers in negligence because of their former employer’s negligent containment of the harmful chemical. This decision is Tooey v. AK Steel Corp., 623 Pa. 60 (2013). Consequently, if you were exposed to a harmful chemical in the workplace, you have remedies, both through the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, in many cases, and through Pennsylvania law, through Tooey and other precedents creating a civil cause of action against a former employer’s negligent containment of a harmful chemical that has caused a related disease or harmful health condition. If you or a family member have been exposed to harmful chemicals during employment, you should contact us, we can help.
Many times, other parties create an unsafe exposure to a harmful chemical. For example, I represented a refinery worker who was exposed to hydrofluoric acid (“HF”), an extremely corrosive compound that caused her permanent harm. My client was exposed to HF, which the refinery used as a chemical catalyst to manufacture propane, when a pipe connector separated while she was performing a routine visual inspection. We were able to establish that the unsafe condition arose through a product defect that existed from the refinery’s former ownership by a predecessor refinery company and obtained a settlement for the client after litigation.
