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From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Karen Silkwood
Message-ID: <3116@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Jan-84 14:28:10 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.3116
Posted: Sun Jan 15 14:28:10 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Jan-84 15:31:45 EST
References: <15308@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 33

--	From: Crockett.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
--	The Supreme Court today overruled the Oklahoma State Court decision in a
--	suit by Karen Silkwood's father and children against Kerr-Magee (sp?)
--	owners of the Plutonium plant where she worked prior to her accidental
--	(?) death in 1974 at the age of 28.  The award was based on the
--	contamination she received while working there as a technician.  The
--	vote was 5 to 4 to award the children $10M.  (For some technical reason
--	this reverts back to the state court, so the actual amount may end up
--	being less.)  However, the Supreme Court declared that Kerr-Magee had
--	acted "wantonly and recklessly" in this matter.
--	
--	A nice footnote to last night's movie Silkwood.  For those of you who
--	haven't seen it yet, do.  I found it a thoughly believable and creepy
--	movie.
--	
--	Meg
--	
From what I have seen of the news reports, the Supreme Court did not
vote "to aware the children" any particular amount. The issue that went
to the Supreme Court was whether the children could sue Kerr-Magee at
all. Now that that issue is out of the way, the defendant will definitely
appeal the amount of the award.

Appeals in legal cases usually relate to a limited point of law. In this
case, the Supreme Court wasn't asked to determine whether the damages
were appropriate. (That separate issue could conceivably still make it
to the Supreme Court, I suppose.) A lower court will now handle the appeal
on the question of damages.

Dave Sherman
Toronto
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave