Mariline M. Lee LSOCRES Atty.

Pe Benito

Chapter 9 - Fachers Plea

Cheesemans and Fachers firm shared the cost for the service of a Litigation Science
which only told them after the research that they could not hope to win the Woburn
case. There were only three weeks left and they would begin selecting a real jury and
Facher had never expected that Schlichtmann would get this far. As the scheduled pre-
trial conference was approaching, Facher realized that he was not ready to try the case.
There were 23,337 pages of deposition transcripts and he had not time to sit down and
read them. There were, in fact, thirty six more that had not been transcribed yet. In fact,
there were lots of experts, whose name he did not know. He felt the need for another six
months to prepare.

Although he had already asked Judge Skinner for a continuance which was not taken
seriously, he decided to seek a continuance again but this time in the form of a personal
affidavit. He filed a 20-page affidavit, which took him a week working on and off
between depositions. He elaborated the complexity of the case and the amount of
evidence to be sorted, and asked for a seven-month continuance. At the hearing, Judge
Skinner vehemently refused to grant the continuance despite Fachers pleas.

Instead of a continuance, Judge Skinner insinuated the idea of a settlement. Hence,

Schlictmanns team prepared a settlement demand. Their demand totaled $175 million
in a structured settlement over 30 years. The settlement was offered in hotel banquet
hosted by the prosecution team. Cheeseman was flabbergasted when he learned of the
total amount being demanded. Jerome Facher asked to keep the hotel- provided pen,
and walked out of the room, followed by the other defense lawyers.

Jury selection began two weeks later with both parties giving their peremptory
challenges as the judge asked questions. The selection came to a close with Judge
Skinner giving a remark that they are not entitled to a jury of their liking but to an
impartial jury. Afterwards, Judge Skinner held a conference about the structure of the
trial. Schlichtmann had expected to present his case however he saw fit. Charlie
Neeson proposed a test case of one family but Jerome Facher proposed a bifurcated
trial, which would deal first on the issue of whether the companies had polluted the
groundwater, and then the second phase would deal on the issue of medical causation.
Judge Skinner decided to use Fachers plan and Facher was happy about it.
Schlichtmann, on the other hand, could see an advantage in this plan as he believed
that the jury would see that both Grace and Beatrice properties were contaminated.

Just before trial, a member of Fachers team, named Jacob tried again to settle with
Schlichtmann. He offered $4 million for the dismissal of the case against Beatrice
Foods. When Schlichtmann refused, he offered to try to get $8 million. Schlichtmann
decided to counter-offer before taking the offer to his clients. He countered for $18
million, but never heard back from Jacob again.
Mariline M. Lee LSOCRES Atty. Pe Benito