A Civil Action
In 1979, two wells supplying the drinking water for the small town of East Woburn, Massachusetts, were found to be contaminated with industrial solvents. Huge toxic waste sites were discovered later that year, leading to the suspicion that the pollution was caused by local industries. The residents of Woburn had long been concerned about their foul-tasting drinking water and the unexplained high incidence of leukemia deaths in their community. Anne Anderson (Kathleen Quinlan), a mother whose son Jimmy died of leukemia in 1981, spearheaded the efforts of eight Woburn families to determine the parties responsible for their environmental tragedy. Eventually mega-corporations Beatrice Foods and W. R. Grace & Co. were identified as the owners of properties that may have been the possible source of most of the pollutants. Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta), a personal-injury lawyer, and his small law firm are hired to sue these industrial giants for damages arising from the pollution of the town's drinking water -- damages that could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Jerome Facher (Robert Duvall), chief litigator at a venerable Boston law firm, defends the interests of Beatrice Foods. William Cheeseman (Bruce Norris) defends the interests of international conglomerate W. R. Grace. These codefendants are well aware of the potentially high stakes of this lawsuit and are fully prepared to throw their considerable resources behind an uncompromising defense of these charges. The trial is presided over by U.S. District Judge Walter J. Skinner (John Lithgow).
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