BENTON - U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle granted summary judgment against two claims that Honeywell’s processing of uranium in Metropolis caused cancer.
She ruled on March 14 that a two year statute of limitations ran out on plaintiffs Kristi Burnett and Teresa Russell before they sued Honeywell in 2022.
She found their claims accrued either when doctors diagnosed their cancers in 2011 and 2012 or when they met local lawyer Richard Kruger six years later.
She found no evidence that Honeywell prevented them from investigating or filing their claims.
“Although Russell’s attorneys collected samples from her property in 2019, they waited more than two years after receiving the results from the radiochemistry laboratory in 2020 to file this claim,” she wrote.
Kruger represents clients in eight uranium cases as local counsel for a national legal team with former state Senate president James Clayborne of Belleville in the forefront.
Plaintiffs claim Honeywell coated Metropolis with deadly dust starting in 1959 by a process that changed solid uranium into a gas, uranium hexafluoride.
Clayborne filed the first complaint in 2018 on behalf of property owner Roger Steward as potential leader of a class action.
In 2021, Clayborne sued Honeywell for the estate of Stephen Krueger.
He claimed Krueger died of colon cancer “caused by the radioactive particles and toxic chemicals tortiously released from the plant.”
Later that year, Clayborne sued Honeywell on behalf of the city.
After that, he filed cancer suits for Russell, Burnett, Patricia Hughes, Autumn Funkhouser, and the estate of Craig Bass.
Clayborne claimed Russell lived at least 32 years within a mile of the plant.
He added that chemotherapy caused her to lose both kidneys and receive a transplant.
Clayborne claimed Burnett was diagnosed in 2012 and her thyroid was removed.
He claimed Hughes lived within a mile of the plant for about 20 years.
He added that she was diagnosed in 2021 and undergoes treatment at home twice a day.
Clayborne claimed Funkhouser lived 16 years within half a mile.
He claimed her thyroid was removed in 2014, and she was diagnosed again in 2019.
He claimed she takes several injectable and oral prescribed medications every single day.
Clayborne claimed Bass lived 35 years within three miles of the plant, and died in 2021 at age 62.
Yandle consolidated the injury claims.
Honeywell argued that Russell and Burnett waited too long, and Yandle agreed.
Yandle found that in 2011, Russell received information from a clinic that plants emitting things into the air could have caused cancer.
She found Russell testified in a deposition that she believed proximity to the plant could have had something to do with her diagnosis.
She found Bass informed Russell that lawyers were bringing claims.
“At that time Russell already thought that her cancer was related to the Honeywell facility, so she decided to talk with the lawyers,” she wrote.
Yandle found Russell signed a retention agreement with the Kruger firm in November 2018, which stated that firms were ready to pursue a class action on her behalf.
As for Burnett, Yandle found she testified in a deposition that she saw news about potential claims against Honeywell for people within a certain radius in 2016 or 2017.
She found Burnett answered a question of whether at the time she thought her cancer might have related to the Honeywell facility by saying yes.
Burnett testified that she learned of potential claims against Honeywell from her uncle Stephen Krueger, whose estate would later file the first injury suit.
Yandle found Burnett’s awareness of her uncle’s case greatly undermined her claim that she didn’t know enough to connect her condition to the Honeywell facility.
Claims of Hughes, Funkhouser, and the estates of Krueger and Bass remain active.
Yandle has set trial for the city’s suit to begin next January.
In the original case, plaintiff Steward moved for class certification in January.
He seeks reduction of emissions, remediation of property, availability of relocation, medical monitoring, monetary damages and punitive damages.
Current and former owners and occupants of property within three miles would qualify.
That would include the entire city and areas beyond.