SALEM City to sue for share of payment

City officials said they never received a form regarding disbursement of a multimillion-dollar settlement.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- City officials are taking legal action to recover at least $500,000 they think the city is owed from a class-action lawsuit alleging pesticide contamination.
The city is considering filing a lawsuit today in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court against Murray & amp; Murray, the Sandusky law firm that represented the city and hundreds of area residents in a 1990 class-action lawsuit, Salem Law Director C. Brooke Zellers said Tuesday.
Settlement: The suit, against the former Reutgers-Nease Chemical Co. of State College, Pa., was settled in October 1999 in federal court in Cleveland for $18 million.
The money was to be distributed to the city and the 1,300 area residents who were parties to the lawsuit, Zellers said.
Although many of the residents began receiving settlement payments in March 2000, the city has yet to get any money, he added.
When Salem asked Murray & amp; Murray about its share a year ago, Zellers said, the law firm told city officials they failed to fill out a claim form sent to the city in September 1999, and, for that reason, Salem wasn't eligible for settlement money.
Zellers said the city never received any form. He said Murray & amp; Murray related that the document was sent by regular mail and was addressed to city hall, but contained no officeholder's name.
The form should have been sent by certified mail, Zellers said.
A Murray & amp; Murray spokesman was unavailable Tuesday.
The lawsuit the city intends to file in common pleas court will accuse Murray & amp; Murray of malpractice and breach of duty for its handling of the settlement, Zellers said.
Seeks reopening: The city filed a motion Feb. 15 in federal court in Cleveland, asking that the settlement issue be reopened based on the city's claim that Murray & amp; Murray failed to properly notify the city.
The federal court matter is pending.
The class-action lawsuit filed in 1990 claimed that a Reutgers-Nease plant along Benton Road northwest of Salem contaminated the surrounding area with mirex, a pesticide that may cause cancer. The plant closed in 1973.
Mirex polluted part of Little Beaver Creek and spread to property along the stream, the suit said.
The city, which owns creek-side property in Perry and Salem townships, was affected by the pollution and was a party to the lawsuit, Zellers explained.