More than a year after its filing, Stanley Waleski’s lawsuit seeking $619.3 million more for 4,360 past and present Avoca, Pa.-area residents exposed to contamination is still bouncing from court to court, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader reported. Waleski initiated the suit on the group’s behalf in April 2018 in the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. The defendants — Philadelphia law firm Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads and two of its attorneys — moved the case to federal court in Scranton last June through an automatic action known as a removal. The Montgomery firm successfully argued for the case to be transferred again to federal court in New York City. That jurisdiction’s presiding U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan issued an order in February moving the suit to federal bankruptcy court in New York City. Bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Wiles is in the process of deciding whether the suit will remain in his New York City court or be moved again, records show. The Avoca plaintiffs were involved in 2005 litigation filed by the Powell Law Group seeking compensation for health problems they attributed to creosote exposure from the defunct Kerr-McGee Corp. wood treatment plant that operated in the borough for four decades until 1996. Their claims were ultimately processed through the 2009 bankruptcy of Kerr-McGee and related entities under the umbrella of Tronox Inc. — a case adjudicated in the federal bankruptcy court in New York City. Powell Law had hired the Montgomery firm for its bankruptcy expertise in 2009. Waleski’s complaint accuses the Montgomery firm of breach of contract for allegedly failing to take actions seeking top-dollar compensation for the local victims in the bankruptcy case. He came up with the $619.3 million figure asserting the Avoca-area residents were entitled to $949 million but ended up receiving $329.7 million through the bankruptcy, his suit said.
