Advertise
Resources
Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
NEW YORK--Groups of U.S. military veterans and Vietnamese citizens failed Friday to convince a federal appeals court to reinstate their product liability claims against the manufacturers of defoliants--including Agent Orange--and herbicides that the military used during the Vietnam War.
Upholding a lower federal court's rulings, a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel issued three separate decisions that bar the plaintiffs from recovering damages from numerous chemical manufacturers.
The defendants included Dow Chemical Co., which produced the Agent Orange defoliant; Diamond Shamrock Agricultural Chemicals Inc.; Hercules Inc.; Monsanto Chemical Co.; Occidental Electrochemicals Corp.; and Uniroyal Chemical Co. Inc.
The military veterans, who alleged they suffered health problems because of their exposure to Agent Orange, were not covered by a 1984 class action settlement that Dow reached with veterans.
In its decisions, the 2nd Circuit panel ruled that the veterans' cases could not be heard in state court because such a hearing could risk disturbing the 1984 settlement. The court also upheld the lower court's rulings that the defendants were protected by the government contractor's defense because the defoliants and herbicides met government specifications.
The Vietnamese nationals cannot hold the defendants liable for their alleged health problems because of the government contractor's defense and because the U.S. military used the products to protect its troops by destroying enemy cover "and not as a weapon of war against human populations," the appeals court ruled.