Memphis native Gerald Stern worked as a lawyer in the
civil rights movement after law school, then joined Arnold and Porter,
a top firm in Washington, D.C. He was 35, assigned to the firm's pro bono
section, and a little bored when the Buffalo Creek case came his way.
Pittston Coal Co. hired Zane Gray Staker, a 50-year-old Mingo County native
with a Harvard law degree, a commanding courtroom presence and an impressive
client list.
Stern and his team of lawyers spent two years on the case before accepting
a $13.5 million settlement for their 625 clients in June 1974.
He then wrote, "The Buffalo Creek Disaster: The Story of the Survivors'
Unprecedented Lawsuit."
Stern left Arnold and Porter to start his own firm, representing plaintiffs
in two coal mine accidents in Eastern Kentucky, and then joined the other
side at Occidental Petroleum, which owns Island Creek Coal Co.
After a short stint at the Justice Department working under Attorney General
Janet Reno, Stern now lives in Washington and spends his time on writing
and consulting projects. He recently recalled his time in Buffalo Creek
during a telephone conversation with Gazette reporter Maryclaire Dale.
"The idea is to get payment on the loss of your mother and father.
The difficulty there is this: What do they cost? So the whole concept is
... to get compensation in an area in which there can never be compensation.
That's troubling.
"Really, we didn't really think it would go on to trial in the first
place. In fact, Pittston was setting up claims offices we were just trying
to put a little pressure on them to do better for these people.
"So then things kept growing, and then I found out about some things
that expanded the suit, and then it kept on going and going, and it finally
got to the point where I said, 'We're going to have to have a trial.'
"I can remember driving in, over the hills to get into Buffalo Creek,
through the back way. It was eerie, going through the wastelands ...
"There were black water lines on buildings, big X's on buildings that
were supposed to be destroyed. It was very vivid ... .
"I have no idea what I might have been expecting ... This was really
a displaced area.
"You're in a sense privileged to be allowed in people's lives in that
way, like a doctor would be, a psychologist might be. A lawyer was allowed
to ask the most personal questions, and have them respond. And it was pretty
apparent in doing the questioning of people that something was really wrong.
I had never talked to people that upset ... I think that's what triggered
the claim for 'survivor's syndrome' damages.
"The idea of suing, certainly, for survivors of the disaster was unprecedented.
There was no diagnostic code in the manuals at that time. The closest thing
they had was an expression, 'shell-shocked' ... A few years after it they
added it to the diagnostic manual.
"As part of the settlement, we provided specific amounts of money
for the pain and suffering for mental suffering.
"The day that I reached the agreement with Pittston ... I was standing
in my kitchen, talking to Zane Gray Staker on the phone line. I decided
on the final settlement.
"But then, there were things still to be done, all the mechanics,
getting the money, dividing it, getting approval and so forth. That kept
us extremely busy for a period after that.
"We came back to give out the checks. I remember going down to Logan,
and to Man.
"I ran into a young group of musicians on the plane, they were from
Charleston. We were talking I told them what I was doing. And they said
they wanted to play for the survivors. I thought it was a great idea. So
they got in the car and we drove over.
"When we got there, somebody said, 'Well you can't do that, this is
a solemn occasion, people are receiving payments for death, losses,' ...
So I went to the guys and I told them, 'You can't do that.' And they said,
'We're West Virginians, we know what we're doing.' So they did. And ABC
was there it made the nightly news that night.
"Driving back from Man, we stopped somewhere - we wanted to eat -
and the television was on. We watched ''ABC News Tonight.' Seeing the settlement,
I did break down. It was a very sad occasion for me, to basically be ending
this, to be saying goodbye to these people.
"There were lots of hard drugs right after the disaster, because you
have all the elements, this influx of dollars - you had a lot of get-rich-quick
people, you had people coming in with phony siding, phony this, phony that.
And drugs as well.
"The thing that always amazed me, anytime there was a flood, anywhere
in the country, the people of Buffalo Creek, as destitute as they might
have been, often contributed. They would send money to the state of Washington
... To them, it's not just the memory of Buffalo Creek, it's any flood
that brings them back.
"I only worked for Arnold and Porter for about another year, during
which I also took a sabbatical for six months to write the book ... It's
very hard to go back into normal corporate defense work, which Arnold and
Porter mostly did.
"And then I started my own law firm. We were all from Arnold and Porter.
"I did a lot of coal mine disasters. Not only did the Scotia Coal
Mine in Eastern Kentucky blowup kill 15 miners, but when the government
went in to inspect it, it blew up again. So there were two losses there,
one involving 15 families against Scotia, and then I sued the government
the second time.
"The Scotia plaintiffs were widows, young women who had to decide
whether to pursue the company or just take the Workers' Compensation payment.
"At the time, those people Scotia Coal Co. were not only Big Daddy
Coal companies, but the plaintiffs' own fathers said, 'Don't do this,'
because they worked there, or their brothers worked there. You could see
very clearly how different it was for these young women to sue the coal
company, which was the livelihood of their fathers and brothers.
"In Buffalo Creek, it was a little bit more dispersed, because not
everyone worked for Buffalo Creek, or Pittston.
"Then-chairman of Occidental Petroleum, a man named Armand Hammer,
said, ... 'I think you should come to work for me.'
"I actually laughed, it was so far from anything I was interested
in doing. But he was an interesting man. I guess I was a little burned
out from these disasters. I wanted to find something new, a challenge.
It was very interesting defending them. I stayed 12 years.
"I definitely was switching to the defendant's side. People were surprised.
I was surprised that I was doing it. I found ... that I see things much
more gray than I used to. You see good guys and bad guys as a plaintiff's
lawyer. Now it's, 'Well, yeah, but you know, you have this and you have
that.'
"I found I didn't have as many specific ideas as I used to have. But
it was a change. No question, it was a change. I was on the other side."