Class-action suit over tar ponds ‘inappropriate’: lawyer
Posted Jun 21, 2010 03:52:53 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A hearing continues today in Nova Scotia Supreme Court that will determine if 400 people can launch a class-action lawsuit over health problems they claim are caused by the Sydney tar ponds.
The plantiffs, all residents who live near the tar ponds, want cleanup of their properties, and other relief for damages resulting from the steel mill and coke ovens.
Plaintiff’s council Ray Wagner says the group just wants its day in court.
“We want to have a trial,” he said. “We think we have a very strong case and a very compelling case.”
Wagner is before a Supreme Court of Nova Scotia judge trying to have the case approved for a class action lawsuit.
“It is about the dumping of hazardous and dangerous chemicals on the community,” he said. “Which we allege that both defendants knew contained harmful substances.”
Wagner says the lawsuit is “modest,” because the plaintiffs aren’t seeking personal damages – but Nova Scotia government lawyer Agnes MacNeil disagrees.
“They’re talking about digging up a foot of topsoil across a three and a half mile radius,” she said. “That’s a lot of land to remove from Sydney. That would be very expensive.
Lawyers for the province and Ottawa say a class-action suit isn’t appropriate because there are too many “individual issues” that would have to be resolved in order to determine liability.
If allowed, this would be the first environmental class-action lawsuit in Nova Scotia.
Nine days are set aside for arguments. The court proceedings are being webcast live online so Sydney residents can watch.
