Clark v. Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc.
Sep 18, 2009OUTCOME: Defense verdict
A complex toxic tort case brought by 31 plaintiffs in Santa Rosa, Calfornia, who alleged that OCLI and other defendants had improperly disposed of chemical waste which had migrated to plaintiffs' wells ... and caused a variety of medical problems. The case was first tried in 2006 and ended in a mistrial after two months. The retrial of the case took 4-1/2 months, and was the longest civil jury trial in the history of Sonoma County. After hearing more than 100 witnesses in over 4 months of testimony, the jury returned in a little more than two hours with a complete defense verdict, finding that OCLI and the other defendants had not contributed to the contamination in plaintiffs' wells.
