SALEM Saying it missed out on $500K, city sues lawyers

The law firm says it mailed a claim form, but the city says it never got it.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The city is making good on a threat to sue a Sandusky law firm in connection with Salem's claim that it missed sharing an $18 million court settlement involving pesticide contamination.
The suit was filed Thursday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.
It claims that Murray & amp; Murray, and attorneys Dennis Murray Sr. and David Yeagley failed to provide the city proper notice regarding distribution of a settlement stemming from a class action lawsuit resolved in fall 1999.
Not being properly notified caused the city to miss sharing the settlement, which was distributed in March 2000, Salem says.
A spokesman for Murray & amp; Murray was unavailable to comment, as were Murray and Yeagley.
Law Director C. Brooke Zellers estimated the city's cut to be at least $500,000.
The lawsuit: Salem and about 1,300 area residents were parties to the class-action lawsuit that led to the settlement dispute.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in February 1990 in federal court in Cleveland by Murray & amp; Murray against the former Reutgers-Nease Chemical Co. of State College, Pa. It claimed that a Reutgers-Nease plant along Benton Road northwest of Salem contaminated nearby Little Beaver Creek with mirex, a pesticide that may cause cancer.
The plant closed in 1973, but plaintiffs contended that the pollution negatively affected property along the stream.
As a major landowner in that area, the city "was one of the largest potential recipients in the event of a favorable verdict or settlement" in the class action matter, Salem said in the lawsuit it filed Thursday.
The class-action lawsuit was settled in September 1999.
Claim form: Salem says Murray & amp; Murray told city officials it mailed to the city in September 1999 a claim form connected with dispersal of the settlement.
But the city argues it never received such a form, nor did it get a reminder letter that Murray & amp; Murray said it sent in November 1999.
The city's lawsuit is assigned to Judge C. Ashley Pike.
Salem is being represented by Reminger & amp; Reminger, a Cleveland law firm hired on a contingency basis.
Reminger & amp; Reminger will receive a third of any settlement the city might get in the matter, Zellers said.