For more than four years, Camp Lejeune water contamination victims have been waiting for their day in court. That day has finally arrived.
The first trial under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act gets underway Monday in federal court in eastern North Carolina. The case is the first test of a Camp Lejeune Justice Act claim in court since Congress passed the law in 2022.
The law opened a new path for veterans, family members and others exposed to contaminated water at the Marine Corps base to seek compensation from the federal government.
The first trial is a bench trial, meaning there will be no jury. It involves former Camp Lejeune Marine Frank Mousser, who developed kidney cancer.
Three additional Track 1 cases are scheduled to go to trial, with the next one set for November.
The outcomes could have implications well beyond those individual plaintiffs, potentially giving both the government and claimants more information as they negotiate thousands of other cases.
Read more: Camp Lejeune Justice Act
Ross watching first trials
North Carolina Congresswoman Deborah Ross supported the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. She says the federal court handling the litigation is facing an enormous backlog.
"We only have one federal district court in the entire country that can hear these cases," she said. "And there is such a backlog, not just of these cases, but of all cases in that court because it's one of the fastest growing district courts in the entire country."
More than 400,000 administrative claims have been filed under the Justice Act. The Justice Department has offered more than a billion dollars in settlements, but thousands of claimants have yet to resolve their cases. Only less than one percent of the claims have been resolved.
Ross says she is closely watching the first trials because their outcomes could help establish expectations for other claimants.
She said this first trial is, "A benchmark so everybody knows what they are likely to be able to receive. And that will then allow people who want to settle to be able to do that and allow the people who want to go to trial to understand what the upside might be or what the risk might be."
Ross says she hopes the trials will ultimately encourage more settlements.
"I am hoping that we will see some really good settlements that will provide the benchmark for what people can expect and then will lead to more and more settlements so that the people who need and deserve justice can finally get compensation for their injuries."
Previous coverage: After Trump ties Camp Lejeune settlements to midterms, advocates and lawmakers push back
Plaintiffs propose 25 conditions for settlement negotiations
The first trial comes as the parties are also working toward a broader settlement framework.
Late Friday, the Plaintiffs Leadership Group filed a motion asking the court to require a census of plaintiffs whose cases involve 25 specific diseases and conditions. The group says the information is needed to aid negotiations toward a potential global resolution.
The 25 conditions listed by the Plaintiffs Leadership Group are:
- Parkinson's disease
- Systemic scleroderma/sclerosis
- Multiple myeloma
- Kidney disease
- Kidney cancer
- Liver cancer, including bile duct and gallbladder cancer
- Leukemia, adult and child
- Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Bladder cancer
- Hematological disorders, including MDS, aplastic anemia and polycythemia vera
- Esophageal cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Lung cancer, limited to non-smokers for 10 years before diagnosis
- Breast cancer
- Thyroid cancer
- Head and neck cancer
- Colorectal cancer, including colon and rectal cancer
- Non-cardiac birth defects, including neural tube and oral cleft defects
- Cardiac birth defects
- ALS
- Fetal death/stillbirth, after 20 weeks
- Multiple sclerosis
- Autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Sjögren's
- Soft tissue cancers
- Hodgkin's lymphoma
The list is broader than the diseases currently included in the government's existing Elective Option settlement program, but the 25 conditions do not represent a court-approved settlement list or guarantee that people with those conditions will receive settlements.
Instead, the Plaintiffs Leadership Group is asking the court to establish a process for identifying plaintiffs whose claims fall within those categories as negotiations continue. The proposed order would require attorneys to provide information including a claimant's name, the last four digits of the claimant's Social Security number, administrative claim number and diagnosed disease.
The proposed census would cover only the 25 conditions listed by the plaintiffs' leadership group.
The PLG says more than 200 individual diseases and medical conditions have been alleged in the broader pool of Camp Lejeune claims. It says it is not taking a position at this point on diseases outside the 25 listed categories.
Previous coverage: ‘It would be 2424’: Camp Lejeune families demand action on claims backlog
DOJ seeks evidence from claimants
The settlement proposal comes as the Justice Department is pursuing a different approach to managing the massive litigation.
The government filed a memorandum Friday supporting its request for a Lone Pine order. Such an order would require plaintiffs to provide evidence supporting basic elements of their claims, including their exposure, diagnosis and causation.
The government argues that additional documentation is necessary to manage the thousands of lawsuits and hundreds of thousands of administrative claims associated with the Camp Lejeune litigation.
The competing filings underscore the challenge facing the court as it attempts to move the litigation toward resolution.
Plaintiffs' leadership is seeking to identify claimants who could be included in negotiations involving 25 disease and injury categories.
The government, meanwhile, is asking for a more rigorous process to determine which individual claims have sufficient evidence to proceed.
Previous coverage: Critical fix for Camp Lejeune toxic water victims remains stuck in a legislative stalemate
October 30 settlement framework deadline
The developments come as the court's October 30 deadline for the parties to work toward a global settlement framework approaches.
Ross has remained involved in the Camp Lejeune legislation since its passage.
She later worked with Republican Congressman Greg Murphy on bipartisan legislation seeking changes to the Camp Lejeune claims process, including measures addressing the court backlog and other issues facing claimants.
For now, the focus is on a federal courtroom in North Carolina.
After more than four years of waiting, the first Camp Lejeune Justice Act trial begins Monday.
And as that historic case gets underway, the parties are simultaneously trying to determine whether a much broader group of Camp Lejeune claimants can be brought into a global settlement process.
