Negligence In The Film A Civil Action

The movie “A Civil Action” released on January 8, 1999 provides viewers with an extraordinary story of the nightmare that occurred in Woburn Massachusetts in the late 1970’s. The people of this small town at the time had no idea what was going on until there were various cases of Leukemia in small children that ultimately resulted in the early passing of them. The people eventually had gone to find out that the drinking water in this small town was contaminated and there were many women that stepped in to get answers. This movie is a tremendously jaw dropping, eye opening account of a heartbreaking true story incident. There are various elements of negligence in this movie including, duty, legal cause, proximate cause and damages.
First off, as a corporation handling a towns water systems, it is the duty of the individuals within the company to take care of the water in a responsible

manner. According to the textbook, duty of care means it is the “legal and ethical obligation placed upon a director to act diligently and prudently in conducting the affairs of the corporation.” In this case, Mr. Schlichtmann was right in a sense that he was able to prove that under a good number of various government rules that the people of Woburn had the right to clean drinking water. However, he was also successful in proving that they did not have the right to contravene pertaining to these rights. He even used different types of evidence like
Furthermore, the legal cause of this case was the children that were indeed impacted by the actions of the company Grace and Beatrice Foods.

In the beginning of the movie, the mothers of the victims went to Mr. Schlichtmann who was the lawyer that ultimately helped them with their case. All they ultimately wanted was an apology. However, Schlichtmann worked for a small firm. This firm typically took clients who are too poor to pay usually rather expansive legal fees in hopes of winning and receiving a chunk of a large settlement. As he sits and listens to the devastated mothers of the affected children, he contemplates if this is a case that would be worthy of getting involved with. Ultimately, as he did get involved with the case, he was able to prove that there was proximate cause. It is evident that various people were injured/hurt in this incident. Proximate cause is the defendant having foreseen the possible outcomes a such a situation and in this case it is easy to tell the possibilities of allowing hazardous waste into drinking water and even destructing the

environment.
The damages pertaining to a case did not add up tremendously. Overall, the parents of the Woburn water crisis were yet again left alone and empty. This is because the case ultimately ended in an 8 million dollar settlement as one company, Grace and Beatrice Foods was dropped. Ultimately, the case was settled with money a no wrongdoing although many young and innocent lives were lost due to the actions of these companies. Lastly according to an article, and pertaining to legal defenses, the EPA proposed that the wells of these companies will be added to the National Priorities list. They did so because they found that Woburn Massachusetts ranked 39th worst on the list of the EPA’s evaluation system and this occurred in December shortly after a civil lawsuit was filed on these companies. Overall, the legal and factual problems in the case impacted various people in tremendously negative ways and in the long run resulted in many unanswered questions of the people mainly affected by the actions of these companies.