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Judge: Sailors' class-action suit can proceed over alleged radiation exposure (Fukushima)
A U.S. federal judge has ruled that a class-action lawsuit filed by about 200 Navy sailors and Marines can proceed against Japanese utility TEPCO and other defendants who they blame for a variety of ailments from radiation exposure following a nuclear reactor meltdown 3½ years ago.
In a decision released Tuesday, Southern District of California Judge Janis Sammartino ruled that the suit can be amended to add the builders of the Fukushima-Daichi Nuclear Power Plant reactors — General Electric, EBASCO, Toshiba and Hitachi — as defendants.
Sammartino also denied a change of venue to Japan and dismissed several minor aspects of the suit. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have until Nov. 18 to make changes to their filings. “It is not over, but we have won the major battle,” lawyer Charles Bonner wrote in an email to his clients that was provided to Stars and Stripes.
...snip...
Sammartino’s ruling was a bit of a surprise. The Defense Department, including Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson, have concluded that the illnesses are not a result of the servicemembers’ work in Operation Tomodachi, in which a massive earthquake on March 11, 2011, spawned a tsunami that swamped the nuclear plant.
http://www.stripes.com/news/judge-sailors-class-action-suit-can-proceed-over-alleged-radiation-exposure-1.311088
In a decision released Tuesday, Southern District of California Judge Janis Sammartino ruled that the suit can be amended to add the builders of the Fukushima-Daichi Nuclear Power Plant reactors — General Electric, EBASCO, Toshiba and Hitachi — as defendants.
Sammartino also denied a change of venue to Japan and dismissed several minor aspects of the suit. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have until Nov. 18 to make changes to their filings. “It is not over, but we have won the major battle,” lawyer Charles Bonner wrote in an email to his clients that was provided to Stars and Stripes.
...snip...
Sammartino’s ruling was a bit of a surprise. The Defense Department, including Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson, have concluded that the illnesses are not a result of the servicemembers’ work in Operation Tomodachi, in which a massive earthquake on March 11, 2011, spawned a tsunami that swamped the nuclear plant.
http://www.stripes.com/news/judge-sailors-class-action-suit-can-proceed-over-alleged-radiation-exposure-1.311088
It shouldn't be "a bit of a surprise" since there's a very high bar to have a case like that thrown out. They would have to show that even if the accusations were true, the case couldn't win (as a matter of law or similar). Most facts that could be in dispute aren't open for determination at this point (it's what the trial is for).
It is a little telling that the ambulance chaser they have for an attorney claims that they "have won the major battle". It hints that he doesn't think his actual case has much of a chance... but that his goal of spending years in the press and getting paid to make outrageous allegations is assured.