Stack
Trustees of the village of Hartford have moved to intervene in class action litigation over pollution from an underground pool of petroleum.
The village won't raise any new issues "other than the pleading and establishment of losses suffered by the village, separate and distinct from the losses suffered by the class," city attorney Rene Bassett Butler wrote June 23.
She wrote that the acts alleged in the litigation are identical to the acts the village would charge against the defendants.
The village joins the fray as Circuit Judge Daniel Stack ponders a settlement that Shell Oil subsidiary Equilon and Clark Oil successor Premcor reached with plaintiffs.
Two teams of plaintiff attorneys first had to reach a settlement of their own.
Groups from Illinois and Missouri with different suits and clients agreed to cooperate in talks with Equilon and Premcor.
Harmony does not prevail, however, for defendants outside the settlement argue that terms of the agreement with Equilon and Premcor might prove unfair to them.