A CIVIL ACTION

Jonathan Harr
Orphans & Dogs

For most of the next year and a half, Schlichtmann let the Woburn case languish in the
files. His life was busy and his career on the rise. Reed & Mulligan landed a big case of hotel fire
in which a businessman died. Schlichtmann, assisted by Conway and Bill Crowley handled the
case. They settled the case prior trial for 2.25 million dollars.
After a handsome settlement from the hotel fire case, Barry Reed took a large portion of
the hotel fire fee and took all the credits for settling the case, this lead to Schlichtmann leaving
Reed & Mulligan Firm. Schlichtmann, Conway and Crowley established a new firm. During the
launching party of their new firm, Conway, again said to Schlichtmann to get rid of the Woburn
Case, Schlichtmann simply laughed.
Conway has been busy filtering and rejecting cases that has no merits which he calls
“dogs”. “Orphans” on the other hand are cases with potential merits but was passed down and
rejected by several law firms. However, a classic “orphan” case, a case in which the biggest New
York Law Firm rejected triggered Conway’s interest. It was about a medical malpractice case, a
young man in an auto accident was hospitalized for 622 days, later leaving the hospital with a
wheelchair due to infections and overdosing of steroids. Schlichtmann’s approach on the case
was identical to that of the hotel fire case, Schlichtmann tried to make a settlement with the
defendant’s counsel prior to trial, but the one million settlement was rejected by Schlichtmann,
hence the trial starts. It was a difficult and tiring situation for Schlichtmann and his associates,
they invested nearly $300,000.00 on the case. During the pendency of the trial, Schlichtmann
offered Cheeseman a tour in his new office firm. Cheeseman observed the extravagance and
detailed preparation of Schlichtmann for the Carney case. Later on, Schlichtmann and his
associates won the Carney case with an awarded damage of $4.7 million. The triumph became
another bullet of confidence for Schlichtmann.
On the Woburn case, Cheeseman, with the help of two doctors from Harvard filed a
motion for summary judgement since it was found out by the two doctors from Harvard that
there was no concrete evidence of TCE causing leukemia. Cheeseman argued that the negative
effect of TCE was only tested in animals. In his reply, Schlichtmann seeked the help of doctors
from the same institution, Harvard, named Levin and Colvin. Colvin conducted various tests
using the blood samples from the families of Woburn affected by wells G and H, the results of
the tests shook Colvin, the results showed that blood samples showed a reaction that it is fighting
a carcinogenic substance and if the blood lost the fight, leukemia is one of the possible outcome.
The motion for summary judgement was DENIED by Judge Skinner. For the second time,
Schlichtmann won against Cheeseman. Also, the case of Woburn was fully passed to
Schlichtmann by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.