The presiding judge in the Rohm & Haas/Dow Chemical cancer cluster trial, which had been scheduled to begin on June 7, has set September 20 as the new trial date.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Allan Tereshko, in ordering the new schedule in the first of 31 related cases, cited “issues attendant to a trial of this magnitude and complexity,” including pending appeals filed by the defendant of pre-trial motions. The plaintiff in the trial is Joanne Branham on behalf of her deceased husband, Franklin Delano Branham, from McCullom Lake, Illinois.

All the plaintiffs (ten have died since the suits were filed) assert that Philadelphia-based Rohm & Haas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dow, poisoned the air and groundwater in the McCullom Lake community with vinyl chloride (among other toxic chemicals) discharged from its chemical-manufacturing plant into an unlined waste pit near their homes. They allege that prolonged exposure caused them to contract rare malignant brain cancers and brain tumors.

Mr. Branham was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a lethal form of brain cancer, in 2004, just a few years after he and Joanne relocated to Apache Junction, Arizona, near Phoenix. He died just one month after brain surgery. 

Contacts:
Aaron J. Freiwald, Esq.
ajf@layserfreiwald.com
215.875.8000
Stephan Rosenfeld (for Layser & Freiwald)
215.514.4101
steph@idadvisors.com