Property
owners have won a key decision from the Michigan appeals court in their
long-running lawsuit over dioxin contamination by Dow Chemical.
SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — Property owners have won a key decision from the Michigan Court of Appeals in their long-running lawsuit over dioxin contamination by Dow Chemical.
The court ruled 2-1 on Thursday that property
owners along the Tittabawassee River in eastern Michigan didn't wait too
long to sue the chemical company over contamination in the river's
flood plain. The contamination was caused by dioxin released by Dow
decades ago.
Dow argued that the statute of limitations had
expired because the public became aware of dioxin pollution in the river
in the 1980s. But the appeals court said the key date was in 2002, when
Michigan environmental regulators reported high levels in the flood
plain in Saginaw County.
"Plaintiffs' damages, including the loss of the
use and enjoyment of their property and depreciation of their property
values, arose from the harm of dioxins in their soil reaching
potentially toxic levels but did not exist in any tangible form until
the (state) published its 2002 notice," according to the ruling from
Judge Kathleen Jansen and Judge Henry Saad.
The lawsuit was filed a year later, within a key three-year period.
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