By George P. Hassett

The city is calling it a ‚Äúmajor legal victory‚Äù but to Somerville police officer Jack Leuchter Superior Court  Judge Dennis J. Curran’s ruling that there is insufficient evidence to continue a lawsuit against the city by 60 employees who work in the public safety building is irrelevant.

‚ÄúThat’s just a case. There is nobody who works in this building who feels comfortable here. No court ruling is going to change that,‚Äù he said.

More than 60 city employees, including cops and firefighters, filed a lawsuit in 2005 to get to the bottom of health problems plaguing people who worked inside the building 220 Washington St. This week the lawsuit ended with Curran’s ruling.

The plaintiffs claimed 16 city employees have died in the past 10 years because they “were subjected to prolonged exposures, to chronic damp conditions, and the types of molds that produce toxins as well as other hazardous substances present in their workplace environment.” The lawsuit alleged the site was once used as an MBTA bus garage, where car batteries were routinely split open and emptied into the ground.

In a decision received by city officials on Monday, Curran wrote the plaintiffs had failed ‚Äúto establish a causal connection between [their] claimed injuries and the [city’s] conduct.‚Äù ‚ÄúThere is no documentation of a causal connection anywhere in papers filed in this motion. The plaintiff’s evidence, thus, is insufficient,‚Äù he wrote.

In a statement Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said the lawsuit was long on publicity but short on facts.

‚ÄúThe granting of our motion for summary judgment sends a clear message that the charges made against the city in this lawsuit have no basis in scientific evidence,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúThe charge that the city had knowingly and negligently exposed its employees to hazardous working conditions was very serious and received a lot of publicity, but it was never justified by the facts.  Despite having been
inspected for contaminants many times over the years, including by plaintiffs’ experts, no study has ever found contaminants at the public safety building to exist at hazardous levels. ‚ÄùThis is a major legal victory for the city,‚Äù said City Solicitor John Gannon.  ‚ÄúThis lawsuit has hung over the city since 2005, creating an atmosphere of concern and antagonism that we are happy to see dispelled.  I’m glad we finally had our day in court and I’m delighted with the outcome.‚Äù   

   
Leuchter, the president of the patrolmen’s union, said the atmosphere of concern in the building will continue as long as mold is visible on the walls and former city employees keep dying of cancer.

‚ÄúYou’re not going to find many people in that building who feel they are being told the truth. We have never been given the straight dope. Every time another person dies of cancer we get more nervous. A court case isn’t going to change that,‚Äù he said. 

Although Curtatone opposed the idea that 220 Washington St. was a “sick building” he said he would still like to see public safety and emergency personnel in a new building.

‚ÄúWe’ve never made any secret of our view that it would be preferable from an operational standpoint to have a new public safety building, but that’s because it’s an old building that’s being used for a purpose for which it wasn’t designed,‚Äù he said.  ‚ÄúWe will continue working to find the funds and location for a new building, but we will do so in the context of our overall capital needs.‚Äù