Lawyer wants to include dead plaintiff in trials

A lawyer for Deborah Clark, a 61-year-old Hanford plaintiff who died in February of complications from thyroid cancer, will appeal directly to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to have her estate included in next year’s round of Hanford trials.

Attorney Richard Eymann, of Spokane, got approval Wednesday from U.S. District Court Judge William F. Nielsen to file the appeal. Lawyers for the contractors who ran Hanford for the government in the 1940s and ’50s opposed Eymann’s motion.

Clark had requested an expedited trial because of her worsening health, a motion that lawyers for DuPont de Nemours and General Electric, Hanford contractors in the 1940s and ’50s, called a “stunt.” Her case is set for mediation as part of a group of 50 plaintiffs with thyroid disease, not for trial.

In court documents, defense lawyers said Clark, who spent her childhood in northeastern Oregon, received a low dose of radiation, only 1 rad, and offered her $10,000 to settle her case.

Eymann said she received a far higher dose, likely 35 rads, from drinking raw cow’s milk as a child – a dietary detail the government dose estimate doesn’t include.

Eymann said Clark amassed $600,000 in medical bills as her thyroid cancer spread to her bones and destroyed her voice box. He has asked for $2 million to settle her case.

Karen Dorn Steele