GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – A motion seeking to remove them from their leadership positions in the Flint, Mich., water crisis case is an assassination of character, two major plaintiffs firms recently said.
On Oct. 28, Napoli Shkolnik and Levy Konigsberg responded to the motion of Valdemar Washington, a Flint lawyer who represents his own class of individuals affected by contaminants in Flint’s water.
Earlier this week, Washington asked Michigan federal judge Judith Levy to take Napoli Shkolnik and Levy Konigsberg out of their spots as co-liaison counsel because he thinks they are trying to “corner the market” on the funds in a proposed $600 million settlement with the State of Michigan.
“We might never know the catalyst for Washington’s motion, or whom or what inspired its filing, but the pleading’s tenor is clearly rooted in a lack of understanding, masked as rage,” the response says.
“One can deduce that Washington feels unnecessarily left out of the mediation process, which is and has been governed by the appointed neutrals, with assistance from the Special Master.”
Washington’s motion is full of “emotionally charged rhetoric and erroneous allegations” and amount to “an attempted indictment on our character, which is the fabric of our professional existence,” the firms say.
Washington says an infomercial from the Napoli and Levy firms revealed that lead bone testing will help determine which claimants get the most money. He says he is stuck using the less effective blood lead level testing.
The settlement, which could reward lawyers with more than $100 million in fees, was announced in August but has not been finalized and released to the public.
Lawyers accused a state-appointed Flint emergency manager of overseeing a botched shift of the water supply from Detroit to a previously mothballed municipal plant on the Flint River (they also battled each other for control of the litigation).
Tens of thousands of Flint residents were exposed to higher lead levels after the city’s aging pipe system corroded and state health officials delayed warnings.
Washington, a former judge in Genessee County, filed a discrimination lawsuit that claimed Flint leaders provided state employees with clean drinking water while Flint residents were left to deal with contamination.
Rather than sign a non-disclosure agreement and receive the compensation grid, Washington instead filed the motion to punish Stern and Hunter Shkolnik. In addition to removing them from their positions, Washington is asking for unspecified sanctions.
The special master affirmed that lead bone testing will be used, something that should not have come as a surprise to Washington, Napoli and Levy say.
“One would expect that Washington has created damage models for his clients, in light of the fact that there is no guarantee of a settlement, or that bellwether trials may not enhance or even yield a settlement,” the firms wrote.
“Either Washington’s clients all have elevated blood levels such that bone scans would not be beneficial to proving their claims, or they do not, and he has created another proof methodology that doesn’t include bone scans.
“It would be unusual and surprising if he instead has done nothing except wait for a settlement, with the hope that Mr. (Corey) Stern or Mr. (Hunter) Shkolnik would provide the tools necessary to prove his clients’ damages for him.
“What is most ironic here is that rather than be grateful that he has now been provided an alternative method to prove his clients' injuries as part of the proposed settlement, he chose instead to file this motion.”
The sides will duke it out at a hearing this afternoon.