Realyn Austria June 23, 2017

Book Review
Chapter 4: Rule 11

In this chapter, two additional main characters are introduced, Atty. Jerome
Facher and Atty. William Cheeseman. Atty. Jerome Facher is an experienced lawyer who
had been in the profession in more than 30 years. He works in Hale and Dorr who
represents Beatrice Foods which is among the defendants in a lawsuit filed by east
Woburn residents. In the Woburn case, his law firm is a co-defendant representing
Beatrice Foods together with Mr. Cheeseman who represents W.R. Grace & Co. Both
companies were charged by the plaintiffs in the case represented by Mr. Schlichtmann of
the Reed & Mulligan law firm to be the culprit of the water contamination, which caused
the death of 5 children due to leukemia.

Atty. William Cheeseman is a senior partner in Boston firm of Foley, Hoag &
Eliot. He regarded Woburn lawsuit against the company he is representing seriously
unlike Atty. Facher. In his profession as a lawyer, hes known for finding clever ways to
kill the lawsuits in their infancy. He never wants to bring any of his case to trial.

In one of the Schlichtmanns press conference announcing the lawsuit, he made a

lot of allegations publicly which Atty. Cheeseman finds to be highly unprofessional
violating the Canons of Professional Responsibility. In his hope to teach Schlichtmann a
lesson, he came across with some certain Rule 11. However, it had been conceived half a
century ago in 1938. The intention of this rule is intended to curb frivolous and
irresponsible lawsuits. The only problem is that this rule is also weakly worded and easy
to circumvent. A lot of lawyers had wasted their time invoking this rule and so as
Cheeseman. This Rule 11 is undergoing certain revision that up to the time Cheeseman
tried to invoke it has not been re-enacted yet. He believes that the old Rule 11 can be
applied, though. His stand lies within the pieces of evidence, the plaintiff failed to
establish most especially to the connection between the onsets of leukemia cases, the
contaminated water in their wells and the two companies rendering the lawsuit to fall
under the ambit of Rule 11.

At the trial, Judge Skinner denied his motion. Rule 11 can be used as a useful tool
to restrain frivolous and abusive litigation, however it may not be used to harass the
serious litigant whose claim may defend upon circumstantial evidence and may not fully
develop the time the complaint was filed. He mentioned that the EPA reports and the
study of the Woburn leukemia cluster by the Centers for Disease control constituted
sufficient grounds for filing a complaint.