Despite evidence that Union Carbide directly oversaw construction of its notorious plant in Bhopal, India, U.S. court denies justice to victims of pollution
Last night a New York federal court found that...UCC....could not be sued for ongoing contamination from the...chemical plant in Bhopal, India...EarthRights International...filed the lawsuit...on behalf of residents of Bhopal whose land and water are contaminated by waste from the plant. A poisonous gas leak from the... plant killed over 5,000 people in 1984...UCC was intimately involved in the creation and disposal of toxic wastes...and the manager...confirmed that he worked for UCC, not for the Indian subsidiary...[J]udge John Keenan ignored this evidence, ruling that UCC was not sufficiently involved...[T]he plaintiffs believe that the Second Circuit will correct this error....The plaintiffs have also sued the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, which now owns the Bhopal site, to compel its cooperation in the cleanup of the contamination...[N]either the Government of India nor the State...has appeared before the court…