SALEM Lawyer discounts suit over city's settlement

The city was properly notified of the settlement, an attorney argues.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- An attorney being sued by the city over dispersal of an $18 million federal court settlement says the city's claim is groundless.
A lawsuit the city filed Thursday in Columbiana County Common Pleas court argues that Murray & amp; Murray, a Sandusky law firm, failed to properly notify Salem officials regarding dispersal of the 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, the city alleges.
Salem says it's owed at least $500,000 from the settlement.
"The city will recover nothing," Dennis Murray Sr., who's named in the suit along with his law firm, said Friday.
Obligation met: The city was notified of the settlement disbursal through a mailed claim form and reminder letter, Murray said.
In mailing the documents, Murray & amp; Murray met the court-required obligation for notification, Murray argued.
The city contends it never received the claim form and reminder letter.
Salem's lawsuit is assigned to Judge C. Ashley Pike
Class action: The city and about 1,300 area residents were parties to the class action lawsuit filed in federal court in Cleveland in 1990 by Murray & amp; Murray against the former Reutgers-Nease Chemical Co. of State College, Pa.
The lawsuit argued that a Reutgers-Nease plant along Benton Road near Salem contaminated nearby Little Beaver Creek with mirex, a pesticide that may cause cancer.
Plant closed: The plant closed in 1973, but plaintiffs contended that the pollution negatively affected property along the stream.
The city owned land along a stretch of the Little Beaver affected by the pollution, which is why Salem joined in the class-action lawsuit.