Judge Gorsuch In The Rocky Flats Case: ‘Pretty Stirring Stuff’

Judge Gorsuch Ruled In Favor Of Homeowners, Against Two Companies, And ‘Helped Move The [15 Year] Case Toward A Conclusion’

“By the time a lawsuit over pollution from a nuclear weapons plant had reached Judge Neil Gorsuch, it had crawled through the courts for more than two decades, outliving some of the landowners who said the contamination destroyed their property values. That pace didn't sit well with Gorsuch, a judge for the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and now President Donald Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. ‘This long lingering litigation deserves to find resolution soon,’ Gorsuch wrote for the panel, which sent the case back to a lower court to be handled ‘promptly’ in favor of the landowners.” (“Gorsuch's Environment Record: Neither A Clear Friend Or Foe,” The Associated Press, 3/14/2017)

• “William Schierkolk, listed as one of the representatives in the class-action suit, said he moved to his property on Alkire Street in 1975 because ‘it looked like a nice place to live.’ Schierkolk, 84… heard from many neighbors who tried selling their homes that the value of their property had dropped significantly. Of the settlement, Schierkolk said, ‘It’s been a long time.’ ‘I was thinking we no longer had justice in this country,’ he said.” (“$375M Settlement Reached In Homeowner Lawsuit Against Rocky Flats,” The Denver Post, 5/19/2016)

• “Merrill Davidoff, the landowners' attorney, said Gorsuch was a ‘well-prepared and brilliant judge’ who helped move the case toward a conclusion. ‘He follows the law,’ Davidoff said. ‘And in this case the law favored the plaintiffs — the landowners — not the government or the government contractors.’” (“Gorsuch's Environment Record: Neither A Clear Friend Or Foe,” The Associated Press, 3/14/2017)

Judge Gorsuch’s Opinion In The Rocky Flats Case Called ‘Pretty Stirring Stuff’

“10th Circuit In Rocky Flats Case: After 25 Years, Give Plaintiffs Justice: More than 25 years ago, eight Coloradoans agreed to serve as the representatives for a class of about 13,000 property owners who believed the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant had contaminated their land with radioactive plutonium. In late 2005, after 15 years of pre-trial motions practice against the federal contractors Dow Chemical and Rockwell International, the case finally went to a four-month trial. Jurors deliberated for 17 days, answering a 30-page jury form, before returning a verdict of $177 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive. With pre-trial interest, the compensatory damages alone topped $700 million. In 2011, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wiped out the jury verdict, holding that the trial judge was too expansive in instructing the jury about what constitutes a nuclear incident. On Tuesday, a different 10th Circuit panel gave back what the appeals court took away in 2011. The 38-page majority opinion by Judge Neil Gorsuch…” (“10th Circuit In Rocky Flats Case: After 25 Years, Give Plaintiffs Justice,” Reuters, 6/24/15)

• “Gorsuch also steps back to address the consequence of the gamesmanship that has kept this case unresolved for so many years – through the deaths, though the judge doesn’t mention this, of four of the original class representatives. Splitting with Judge Nancy Moritz, who called for a retrial of the class claims, Judges Gorsuch and Gregory Phillips instructed the trial court to enter judgment for the plaintiffs. ‘We can imagine only injustice flowing from any effort to gin up the machinery of trial for a second pass over terrain it took fifteen years for the first trial to mow through,’ Judge Gorsuch wrote. ‘Injustice not only in the needless financial expense and the waste of judicial resources, but injustice in the human costs associated with trying to piece together faded memories and long since filed away evidence, the emotional ordeal parties and witnesses must endure in any retrial, the waste of the work already performed by a diligent and properly instructed jury, and the waiting – the waiting everyone would have to endure for a final result in a case where everyone’s already waited too long.’ That’s pretty stirring stuff…” (“10th Circuit In Rocky Flats Case: After 25 Years, Give Plaintiffs Justice,” Reuters, 6/24/15)

Homeowners Claimed Their Property Values Plunged Due To Pollution From The Companies’ Work At A Shuttered Nuclear Weapons Plant In Colorado

“The lawsuit was filed in 1990 by people who lived near the plant northwest of Denver, which had produced triggers for nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The plant was originally operated under a government contract by Dow Chemical Company and later Rockwell International Corporation. Federal authorities raided the facility in 1989, finding years of haphazard handling of plutonium waste that polluted the ground and water. Property values crashed, and nearby landowners sued.” (“Gorsuch's Environment Record: Neither A Clear Friend Or Foe,” The Associated Press, 3/14/2017)

• “Gorsuch wrote that after the ‘titanic fifteen years’ it took to reach a trial, the landowners won more than $900 million in damages and interest based on a federal law, a verdict that was thrown out on appeal. The issue was whether the pollution should have been considered a ‘nuclear incident’ covered by the federal law, which the companies' lawyers argued it should not. An appeals court panel vacated the award.” (“Gorsuch's Environment Record: Neither A Clear Friend Or Foe,” The Associated Press, 3/14/2017)

“‘But that's when things took an interesting turn,’ Gorsuch wrote in 2015. ‘Trying their hand at a little judicial jiu-jitsu, the plaintiffs sought to turn the defendants' victory against them.’ The landowners argued that once the federal law was out of consideration, the companies were liable under Colorado state law. Gorsuch and the three-judge panel agreed and sent the case back to the trial court.” (“Gorsuch's Environment Record: Neither A Clear Friend Or Foe,” The Associated Press, 3/14/2017)

“Writing for the panel, Gorsuch lamented the ‘staggering delay and (no doubt) equally staggering expense the parties endured’ from the long-enduring litigation. ‘Injustice not only in the needless financial expense and the waste of judicial resources, but injustice in the human costs associated with trying to piece together faded memories and long since filed away evidence, the emotional ordeal parties and witnesses must endure in any retrial, the waste of the work already performed by a diligent and properly instructed jury, and the waiting — the waiting everyone would have to endure for a final result in a case where everyone's already waited too long,’ Gorsuch wrote.” (“Gorsuch's Environment Record: Neither A Clear Friend Or Foe,” The Associated Press, 3/14/2017)

“The plant contractors settled last year for $375 million, to be split among thousands of property owners.” (“Gorsuch's Environment Record: Neither A Clear Friend Or Foe,” The Associated Press, 3/14/2017)

• “The lawsuit, which included as many as 15,000 homeowners in an area largely encompassing neighborhoods surrounding Standley Lake, was first filed in 1990. In court papers filed Wednesday, the lawsuit was described as ‘quite possibly the largest docket of any District of Colorado case to date.’” (“$375M Settlement Reached In Homeowner Lawsuit Against Rocky Flats,” The Denver Post, 5/19/2016)