BHOPAL LTTIGATION: Two state cases sow more confusion

The frustrating legal battle between Union Carbide and the government of India over settlement of claims in the 1984 Bhopal disaster has become more entangled than ever. The affair now resembles a three-sided chess game, involving courts in India, Connecticut, and Texas. The newest shocker occurred last week in Bridgeport, Conn., when State Superior Court Judge Burton J. Jacobson ruled on motions by Carbide and American lawyers representing Bhopal victims that Carbide could now negotiate a settlement in Connecticut. What made the decision so surprising is that a U.S. federal court had previously assigned the case to India. Jacobson said that the Indian government, moreover, had no legal power to stop a Connecticut settlement. In June, Carbide announced that it had become stymied in its hopes of achieving a settlement in India and so was seeking settlement back in the U.S. through lawyers representing individual Bhopal claimants. Bhopal District Court Judge, M. W. Deo, however, ...