Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508310068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BIRMINGHAM, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
A lead attorney for the women who sued expressed doubts there would be an agreement to replace the initial $4.25 billion settlement, which an analysis showed was too small to pay women the amounts they were promised.
``It may be that somewhere down the line we would get all the major defendants in a deal ... but that's not where we are now,'' said attorney Ralph Knowles. ``I don't think there's any likelihood that there's going to be a global settlement of the type we had before.''
But a spokeswoman for 3M, which committed $325 million toward the settlement, said the agreement was not dead. ``We are continuing to negotiate,'' Mary Auvin said from company headquarters in St. Paul, Minn.
Jane Kramer of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said that company also was continuing to talk, but added: ``There is no settlement.''
Lawyers told U.S. District Judge Sam Pointer during a two-hour telephone conference that two months of almost continuous, often-contentious talks had failed to produce a larger agreement.
Pointer issued no immediate ruling. One of his options is dissolving the original agreement, in which some 440,000 women already have registered to participate.
An implant recipient who would have received $1.4 million under the settlement was shocked that lawyers had missed Pointer's deadline.
``I was so sure this would come to a good conclusion. All the women are going to be very disappointed. We waited so long,'' said Louise Romans of Winter Springs, Fla., who suffers from lupus she attributes to silicone implants.
by CNB