A Civil Action

The next morning, Skinner sends the jurors to their deliberations. Schlichtmann stays right outside of their chambers every day for a week, going home only to sleep. During the second week, his mother and then Teresa occasionally come to sit with him. Schlichtmann barely seems aware of the company. Later, juror Jean Coulsey will say that she found Schlichtmann’s vigil outside their chambers a pathetic spectacle.

The list of questions for the jury confuses William Vogel, the jury chairman; no one can make sense of the jargon. Vogel calls for a test vote simply to see how the others stand. They are almost evenly divided on the question of Grace’s and Beatrice’s liability. By the next day, tension has arisen between Coulsey and a juror named Robert Fox, who is increasingly sure that Beatrice should not be held liable. Fox took pages of notes during the trial, and Coulsey did not. She is frustrated by her inability to articulate issues the way the notetakers can.

After several weeks, the jury is deadlocked. Skinner cannot release the jurors and will not declare a mistrial. Vogel will soon undergo heart surgery, and a woman named Dina Gilbern becomes the alternate chair. Skinner plans on bringing her into the jury the following day. Facher, who disapproved of Gilbern during the jury selection on grounds of her membership in the Audubon Society and unabashed love of pristine wilderness, asks to give Vogel a few more days. Vogel agrees to stay on, and Skinner says he will consider the matter and not replace him yet.

On July 28, Monday, Vogel surprises Skinner by announcing that they are finalizing a verdict. Vogel has taken charge after speaking with Skinner and has drawn up two charts of evidence—one for Grace and one for Beatrice. He then asked each juror to consider changing their mind, just as an experiment, and it worked.

The jurors enter the courtroom and Skinner reads the verdict. The jury rules that Beatrice cannot be held liable with respect to any of the questions the jury was asked to answer in the directed ruling. With respect to Grace, phase two of the trial will be required. The jury is excused until September 15.

Schlichtmann meets with reporters on the steps of the courthouse and admits that he is disappointed. Then he visits the Woburn families and tells them that he will fight for them during the second phase of the trial.

The markets shift in reaction to the ruling. Grace’s stock falls three points by the final bell that day. Experts estimate that the verdict has already cost Grace shareholders over $155 million.

Schlichtmann is invited to appear on Good Morning America with Donna Robbins. Rikki Kleiman goes with him. On the airplane, Schlichtmann feels horrible and acts strangely. He feels as if sounds are coming from a great distance away, and when Donna and Rikki ask him questions, he rarely responds. That night, over dinner, he finally begins talking. He says his life is over and he can’t continue. Upstairs in a hotel room, Rikki makes love to him and tries to calm him down. By the time he is done showering in the morning, he is clear-headed and resolves to continue.

Donna and Schlichtmann both perform well on Good Morning America and then fly back to Boston. When Rikki drops him off at his office, Schlichtmann has not referred once to their night of romance.

For three days, Schlichtmann’s team takes stock of their situation. Because they know the jury is divided, their prospects for phase two of the trial are murky. Combined with their disastrous financial situation, Schlichtmann believes the only option is to try to settle.

Schlichtmann meets with Albert Eustis, Grace’s executive vice president and general counsel, and asks for $25,000,000, but at their next meeting in New York, Eustis offers only $6.6 million. Schlichtmann confers with his team. They all want to take the money and quit. It would put nearly $.5 million in the pocket of each family, and they could get back to other cases. Schlichtmann refuses; he can’t let go of the case. At home, he has a panic attack, but his wife, Teresa, helps him calm down.

That week, Schlichtmann’s team outlines the strategy. They will appear before Skinner on September 5. Keating will file a motion for a new trial and ask Skinner to vacate the jury’s verdict. Schlichtmann will consent, saying that his cooperation is part of a settlement agreement for $12 million. Eustis does not accept, and after weeks of negotiating, they cannot agree on a settlement amount. Schlichtmann says the trial must go forward, though Gordon is frantic about the firm’s debt.

Conway finishes reading Keating’s brief, which details his reasons for asking for a mistrial and beginning a new one. Keating argues that because the jurors couldn’t determine when the wells were first contaminated by Grace chemicals, the trial cannot proceed to the medical portion, because they can’t prove that the medical difficulties began after the chemicals were introduced into the water.

On Friday, the hearing at which Skinner will rule on the new trial takes three hours. Skinner decides that he must either ask the jurors to clarify their answers or begin a new trial. He will take the week to decide.

The Woburn families come to Schlichtmann’s offices. He tells them that Eustis has offered $6.6 million but asks that they not share the number with anyone else. He also says that Eustis will not negotiate further until Skinner issues his ruling. The families discuss their options and jointly decide that they are not interested in a settlement that does not come with a guilty verdict against Grace, even if it means they lose at trial.

Eustis calls and offers $8 million as a settlement, on the condition that Skinner orders a new trial. Schlichtmann calls him back after discussing it with his partners and accepts the offer.

On September 22, Skinner approves the settlement and releases the jurors. Each family will receive $375,000 in cash and $80,00 five years later. This comes to $2.6 million, total, for the families. Schlichtmann’s firm receives $2.2 million in fees, but it quickly gets divided among the firm’s creditors, including the families, who request $80,000, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, which asks for $648,000 but settles for $300,000. When the New Year comes, it will be revealed that Gordon never set aside any money to pay their taxes.

In December, Schlichtmann goes to Hawaii for a month-long vacation. During that time, the EPA releases a report on the pump test of Wells G and H that had been conducted prior to the beginning of the trial. It determines that the Beatrice land was the most contaminated area and the largest contributor to the wells’ pollution. The jury had made a mistake.

Before leaving on his vacation, Schlichtmann promised the families that he would appeal the Beatrice verdict. When he returns, he works steadfastly on a new medical malpractice case for several months but loses in court. He feels that Woburn has destroyed his life and wonders if he’ll ever win a case again. Shortly afterward, he and Teresa divorce. Nearly everything the firm owns is repossessed.

Nesson works on the Beatrice appeal for several months. He gives the brief to Schlichtmann to fill in any missing details. Schlichtmann quickly becomes obsessed as he pores over the transcripts of the trial and is soon envisioning them winning the appeal. After reading the brief, post-filing, Neil Jacobs invites Schlichtmann to talk. He offers $200,000 to withdraw the appeal, but Schlichtmann refuses.

Facher and Jacobs file their opposition brief to the appeal. After he and Nesson read it, they talk. Nesson mourns the fact that they never found evidence linking Riley and the tannery to the TCE on the 15 acres, which could have changed everything. The next day he asks Gordon to go to the EPA’s regional office and check the Beatrice files. Gordon finds nothing new. But as he is preparing to leave, he sees a document he has never seen before, tucked away on a nearby shelf.

It is a 60-page report by a firm called Yankee Environmental Engineering, entitled “Hydroelectric Investigation of the John J. Riley Tanning Company.” Riley commissioned the study, which had been completed in 1983, three years prior to the trial’s beginning. Gordon doesn’t understand why they didn’t receive it during discovery. The report confirms everything that Pinder had offered as evidence on the witness stand. It reinforces the data presented by all of his experts, in fact. It also reveals that Yankee had drilled six monitoring wells that were kept hidden during the EPA pump test, and then throughout the trial.

Facher had to have known about it. Schlichtmann wonders if he deliberately hid it. If he can prove that evidence was deliberately suppressed, it requires that a new trial be granted.

The lawyers appear before Skinner once again. Schlichtmann goes through the Yankee report in detail, determined to show how it would have changed the outcome of the trial. Facher is furious when it’s his turn. He cannot believe that Schlichtmann is accusing him of suppressing evidence. He said that he glimpsed the file, once, but had little time to absorb its contents. And he claims that he never took possession of it. He feels that if Schlichtmann wanted it badly enough, he would have been more diligent in acquiring it. Skinner explodes at them all, telling them that he’s tired of the case and will let them know when he has made a ruling.

Schichtmann loses his condo on New Year’s Day and moves into the office. On January 22, 1988, nine weeks after the hearing, Skinner issues his ruling. He believes the report to be largely in support of Beatrice’s claims, not against. However, he does believe that Schlichtmann’s request for the report had been handled properly, saying that Facher and Mary Ryan—an assistant helping to deliver documents during the discovery period—should have given it to him.

Schlichtmann begins preparing the appeal.

Nesson argues the appeal before three judges of the United States Court of Appeals. This takes place on January 28, 1988. While they await the ruling, Schlichtmann is finally driven to work on other cases, which is a huge relief to his partners.

The Appeals Court releases its decision on December 7. They rule in agreeance with Skinner on the Yankee report and deny the appeal. On the charge of misconduct, they agree with Schlichtmann. The Court of Appeals has issued a strong rebuke to Skinner concerning his handling of the matter. They have sent the case back to him for further “aggressive inquiry.”

Schlichtmann is furious. It looks like the court wants to help Skinner put any allegations of misconduct to rest in a way that cannot influence or change the verdict of the trial. One week later, Skinner summons them to his chambers. He intends for his court-mandated inquiry to take less than a day. Schlichtmann protests. A one-day hearing cannot possibly be as aggressive as the Appeals Court ordered. He has started to believe that there is a conspiracy that Skinner is involved in and that Skinner has some reason to thwart Jan at every turn.

Schlichtmann decides to do some fieldwork on his own. He locates a man named Larry Knox, who had been hired to drill wells on the tannery property. He tells Schlichtmann about seeing a backhoe filling a truck at the Aberjona marsh while he was drilling. They had been loading soil that hadn’t looked right, and which sounds to Schlichtmann like Drobinski’s Sample Z. Knox reluctantly agrees to write an affidavit on the matter.

Schlichtmann begins looking for anyone else who might have been involved in the cleanup operation. He visits a man named William Marcus, who had been fired from the tannery after 38 years without a pension. He is dying from a rare form of lymphoma. He says he knew about the Yankee project, but he has no recollection of anyone removing waste from the 15 acres. He recommends that Schlichtmann speak with James Granger, a former plant engineer. They speak on the phone and Granger admits that he knew about the removal of debris and soil from the 15 acres.

The next day, Schlichtmann flies to Rutland, Vermont, to try and visit Granger. Two hours after they reach his home, they leave with his affidavit. It states that in 1983, Riley ordered Granger to remove material from the 15 acres, which were then known as the Wildwood property. He also made it clear that the work was to be done before the EPA visited the property to perform the pump test. He also states that material was discovered during this process that upset Riley greatly. Schlichtmann wonders if this was Sample Z. He reviews the court transcripts of Riley’s time on the stand: he has caught him in a blatant lie about never removing waste from the land.

Gordon calls the EPA and speaks with the Yankee project manager, David Delaney. He said that he had also witnessed the covert removal operation and offers Gordon the notes he took as a result. The notes state that he saw what could only be the removal of Sample Z. When Skinner receives the information that there is evidence of the destruction of evidence, he orders a full discovery period. Schlichtmann contacts Knox to invite him to appear as a witness, but Knox ignores his calls. Finally, they have to subpoena him. He will give testimony in court.

Over the next two months, Skinner hears from 26 witnesses. The misconduct hearings take longer than most trials. Knox performs well under Facher’s examination. However, Skinner feels that nothing valuable is learned. They now know that something was removed from the 15 acres, but there is no new proof that it was something toxic, even when he is presented with Delaney’s notes.

Schlichtmann meets with a new member of Facher’s team, a man named James Quarles. Quarles wants to talk about a settlement. His number is too low and Schlichtmann refuses.

In March, Riley is back on the witness stand, three years after his first trial appearance. This time he is sickly and seems exhausted. He says he does not remember telling anyone to remove anything, but that it could have happened. He also admits that he kept private records at home, including formulas involving chemicals that the tanner used in the process of leather making. He says that at some point he gave his records to his lawyers. Schlichtmann tells Skinner that he should have received those documents during discovery. Mary Ryan says that they are in a warehouse, which Jan is then determined to search. Riley admits to lying on the stand. In an elevator, while leaving, Riley says he just wants it all to be over.

The hearings end in March. Skinner rules four months later. Riley is convicted of perjury, and Mary Ryan is found guilty of deliberate misconduct for not giving Schlichtmann the Yankee report. Facher is exonerated completely. The judge also rules that the removal activity seems to be legitimate and above board. He does not believe that the material from Sample Z resembles tannery sludge.

Mary Ryan’s legal fees had been paid by Beatrice, which means they are liable for her misconduct. This will require additional hearings during which Facher will need to prove that her misconduct did not hinder Schlichtmann’s case against the tannery.

The hearings end in October. Schlichtmann receives a brief from Skinner’s clerk. The brief states that Schlichtmann is, after all that has happened, found guilty of violating Rule 11. Skinner has decided that, in light of all that is now known, there was never any clear evidence against the tannery. Therefore, pursuing the case meant that Jan had pursued a frivolous lawsuit. However, counterbalanced against Mary Ryan’s misconduct, Skinner has decided that neither of them will be allowed to profit from the misconduct of the other.

The Court of Appeals issues its ruling on March 26, 1990. They uphold all of Skinner’s findings. The case is over.

Schlichtmann files for bankruptcy. He quits the firm and moves to Hawaii. He hikes alone and sleeps on beaches. One night he takes off his clothes and swims into the ocean. He wonders if it is actually possible to know that one has wasted one’s life. He considers swimming out until he can no longer see the shore, but eventually he swims back.