Union Carbide not liable for Bhopal claims: US court

Victims question verdict timing a month before Dow-sponsored Olympics

WASHINGTON: A US court has ruled that neither Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) nor its former chairman Warren Anderson were liable for environmental remediation (reversing or stopping environmental damage) or pollution-related claims by those living around its now-defunct plant in Bhopal, where a gas leak in 1984 killed thousands of people.
US district judge John Keenan in Manhattan on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by Bhopal residents seeking to hold UCC, which is now owned by Dow Chemicals and Andersen responsible for injuries caused by toxic wastes from the plant.
The court ruled that it was Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL), and not its parent company UCC, that was responsible for the generation and disposal of the waste that polluted drinking water, and that the liability rests with the state government, according to wire reports.

Victims of the gas disaster and organisations working with them said they were expecting such a judgment, with the London Olympics – in which the present owner of UCC, Dow Chemicals, is a sponsor – one month away.
They also said the order was not surprising considering that the US district judge was hearing the lawsuit after dismissing it thrice on various grounds.
Keenan wrote in his order, “The plaintiffs embarked on a discovery expedition that was worthy of Vasco da Gama. More than two years and 12,000 pages of discovery later, defendants renewed their motion for summary judgment as to all theories of liability.”