In re Three Mile Island Litigation

87 F.R.D. 433, 14 ERC 1834, 30 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 708, 14 ERC (BNA) 1834, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9285
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 10, 1980
DocketCiv. A. No. 79-0432
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 87 F.R.D. 433 (In re Three Mile Island Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Three Mile Island Litigation, 87 F.R.D. 433, 14 ERC 1834, 30 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 708, 14 ERC (BNA) 1834, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9285 (M.D. Pa. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

RAMBO, District Judge.

The events which led to this litigation began on March 28, 1979, with the nuclear incident at reactor number two of the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear facility located on an island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is undisputed that during the course of the accident some radioactive materials escaped into the atmosphere, and that, in the ensuing days, thousands of residents left the area surrounding TMI out of concern for their safety.

On April 9, 1979, the first lawsuit was filed in this court. Numerous suits followed. Judge R. Dixon Herman, to whom the cases were then assigned,1 referred them to United States Magistrate John Ha-vas for pretrial organization and treatment.

On June 27, 1979, a consolidated class action complaint was filed.2 There are sixty-seven plaintiffs named in the consolidat[435]*435ed class action complaint. These include individuals and businesses from the area surrounding TMI.

In September of 1979, counsel for plaintiffs and defendants filed a stipulation seeking class certification for two categories of plaintiffs. The classes were described as follows:

1. Class I consisting of all of those entities (including but not limited to pro-prietorships, unincorporated associations, partnerships, institutions, business and professional corporations, not-for-profit corporations, trusts and their successors in title or interest) having property, one or more places of business, or locations,a within a twenty-five mile radius of Three Mile Island Reactor No. 2 (“TMI 2”) which may have suffered economic harm allegedly related to the events occurring at TMI 2 commencing on or about 4:00 a. m. on March 28, 1979, and continuing thereafter, but excluding the defendants and any parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or other entities wholly or partially under defendants’ control. (Business Class)
2. Class II consisting of all those natural persons residing, located, or having business, property, or occupational interests within a twenty-five mile radius of TMI 2 (at any time on or after approximately 4:00 a. m. on March 28, 1979) who may have suffered economic harm allegedly related to the events occurring at TMI 2 commencing on or about 4:00 a. m., on March 28, 1979, and continuing thereafter, but excluding officers, directors, and managing agents of defendants and of any of their corporate parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or other entities wholly or partially under defendants’ control. (Individual-Economic Harm Class)3

Since the filing of the stipulation, plaintiffs have moved for certification of a third class of individuals. The proposed Class III definition encompasses:

All those individuals within a twenty-five mile radius of Three Mile Island who suffered personal injury, incurred medical expenses, are threatened with medical expenses and/or illness, suffered emotional distress and/or will require medical detection services, including independent inspections and surveys, for a reasonable number of years in the future to monitor the possibility of latent defects of said exposure, as a result of the nuclear incident which is the subject of this Complaint, but excluding Officers, Directors, and Managing Agents of the defendants themselves and of any subsidiaries and affiliates of defendants. (Physical-Emotional Harm Class)

Certification of this class is opposed by the defendants. A pretrial hearing was held to permit plaintiffs to present testimony supporting the motion to certify Class III. Subsequently, Magistrate Havas filed a report and recommendation on the contested matter of Class III certification. He suggested that certification be denied for the bulk of the Class III claims. However, he recommended certification of one issue common to the Class III plaintiffs, that of whether the plaintiffs are entitled to medical detection services.

Plaintiffs filed exceptions to the Magistrate’s report. The court has reviewed the entire record de novo and will adopt the recommendations of the Magistrate for the reasons hereinafter stated. In adopting the Magistrate’s recommendations, no opinion is expressed on the Magistrate’s discussion of applicable Pennsylvania tort law.

I. JURISDICTION

The federal district courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. They are empowered by Congress, through the authority of Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution, to hear only certain categories of cases. This court has raised, sua sponte, the issue of its [436]*436jurisdiction to adjudicate the TMI damage action.

The Atomic Energy Act of 19544 was passed to establish a legal framework for the development, use and control of atomic energy. In 1957 the Price-Anderson Act5 added indemnity provisions to the Atomic Energy Act. It was the goal of Congress to establish a liability fund, with procedures governing claims against the fund, to facilitate the rapid and adequate financial compensation of individuals if there ever were a nuclear accident.6

The Price-Anderson Act has two provisions specifically conferring jurisdiction on federal trial courts. One provides that, when there has been a nuclear incident, “any indemnitor or other interested parties” may petition the federal district court for a determination as to whether the liability for the incident may exceed the coverage mandated by the act. 42 U.S.C. § 2210(o). Pursuant to this section, a federal district court might find it necessary to supervise distribution from the indemnity fund. Guidelines established in the act permit the court to give priority to some claims and to allow only a proportionate share of claims, if necessary, in a bankruptcy-like attempt to provide the most equitable allocation of the funds available. The federal court has the power to stay execution of state court judgments related to the nuclear incident at issue. Thus, a litigant might win a suit in state court only to be forced to await a federal decision as to what portion of the judgment could be paid in light of the overall liability situation.

The second jurisdictional section of the Price-Anderson Act provides in pertinent part:

(2) With respect to any public liability action arising out of or resulting from an extraordinary nuclear occurrence, the United States district court in the district where the extraordinary nuclear occurrence takes place . . . shall have original jurisdiction without regard to the citizenship of any party or the amount in controversy. Upon motion of the defendant or of the Commission, any such action pending in any State court or United States district court shall be removed or transferred to the United States district court having venue under this sub-section. 42 U.S.C. § 2210(n)(2). (Emphasis supplied.)

Extraordinary nuclear occurrence is defined #in the Atomic Energy Act at 42 U.S.C. § 2014(j) as follows:

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87 F.R.D. 433, 14 ERC 1834, 30 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 708, 14 ERC (BNA) 1834, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-three-mile-island-litigation-pamd-1980.