Subject: Peter Angelos takes Vodaphone to court (Kelley).
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 090955 -0600
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
--------------------------------------------------
........From EMF-L.......
I had a BUSY time this Christmas -- with house guests and family.
Sorry, that I did not get to respond individually to the many
"season greetings" many of you sent..... ALL are appreciated --
especially those which spoke of the value of the information you
are receiving through EMF-L..... I do believe that we are doing
some good.....
Though ... when one reads of actions like the following, it is
a bit discouraging ... to think that our governments are doing such
a BAD JOB of looking out for the PUBLIC interest ... that the courts
are our only recourse....!! Long delays, high legal costs, OUT
OF COURT settlements!!! All of these are likely to become the
pattern..... The result will be that the public still will not get
the truth about the cell phone hazards!!! Lawyers will get big
$$$$$$$ fees...... A FEW victims will get some compensation.....
Though perhaps NOT the compensation one is entitled to....
The predictable "out of court" SECRET deals will mean that the
industry will be free to continue exploiting the public through
public exposure to excessive levels of EMF....... The conduct of
our Western democracies in this EMF saga is DISGRACEFUL, a RAPE of
our democratic principles, exploitive, cowardly, and bespeaks an
undeniable misuse of CONFLICT OF INTEREST.....(As an example --
Be sure you note the income that is coming to the British government
through the sale of microwave frequencies, below.)
......guru....
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: News from the U.K. - Peter Angelos takes Vodaphone to court
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 18:33:10 -0800
From: Libby Kelley
To: roy@emfguru.com
THURSDAY DECEMBER 28 2000
http://www.thetimes.co
.uk/article/0,,2-59164,00.html
Vodafone sued over brain cancer
BY CHRIS AYRES, MEDIA BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT
BRITISH mobile phone suppliers are facing a
billion-dollar legal action brought by US brain tumour victims.
The lawsuits, to be launched by one of America’s
most successful lawyers, are the biggest legal assault on the
mobile phone industry and will be the most extensive examination
yet of claims that radiation from mobile phones causes cancer.
Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile phone company,
faces up to ten compensation claims, potentially for billions
of dollars.
It is estimated that two thirds of all Britons now
own a mobile phone after about five million people bought
mobile phones this Christmas.
The cases will be filed by Peter Angelos, who
recently helped to win $4.2 billion (£3 billion) in damages from
the tobacco industry in Maryland.
John A. Pica, an attorney at Mr Angelos’s law firm,
said yesterday: “If these companies knew about the
dangers of cellphone (mobile phone) radiation they should be
punished and they should be punished dearly: not only for what
they did to the public, but for the billions of pounds of profits
they made.”
Mr Angelos, whose law firm earned nearly $1 billion
in fees from the Maryland tobacco industry settlement, is
planning to launch two of the claims before March, and the
remaining seven or eight within a year. They will be launched
initially in California, Kentucky and Maryland. Each claim will
be filed against a mobile handset manufacturer, a mobile phone
network provider and a local “land-line” telephone company.
Mr Pica confirmed that Verizon Wireless, a joint
venture between Vodafone and America’s Bell Atlantic, would be
named in nearly all of the legal actions. Verizon is the biggest
mobile phone company in the US, with 26 million customers. The
cases could prompt copycat claims in Britain and the rest of
the world.
In each of his actions Mr Angelos intends to claim
compensation for the pain suffered by brain tumour patients,
plus the income that they lost as a result of the disease.
Mr Angelos is also seeking compensation for the
families of mobile phone users who have died from brain tumours,
and punitive damages.
Mr Pica yesterday refused to guess the total value
of the compensation claims that his firm will make against
mobile phone companies. He said that individual state laws would
govern how much could be claimed in each case. He also said
that even if the cases were successful they might secure only a
fraction of the amount claimed.
Telecoms companies have so far defended themselves
successfully against claims that mobile phones can cause brain
tumours. This has not prevented a succession of claims over the
devices’ safety, mainly from former engineers who claim that they
were overexposed to radiation from mobile phones through their jobs.
A spokesman for Vodafone said yesterday that he was
not aware that Mr Angelos had become involved in the landmark
legal actions. He said: “The Stewart report, the most
comprehensive report of its kind so far (in Britain), gave mobile
handsets and base stations a clean bill of health. But the link
(between mobile phones and brain tumours) is something we can never
disprove. We need more research.” He added that he was not aware of
any similar legal cases in Britain.
If successful, Mr Angelos’s actions could have a
devastating effect on the share prices of mobile phone companies.
Companies such as Vodafone are already under intense pressure from
investors because of the huge sums of money that they have
invested in “third-generation” mobile phone licences.
In Britain, mobile phone companies paid £22.5
billion for five licences. These will allow their owners to launch
high-speed Internet services via mobile phone handsets.
Mr Angelos is also renowned for his ownership of
the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, which he bought with the
fees generated by his successful compensation claims.
Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service
is provided on Times Newspapers' standard terms and conditions.
British News
December 28, 2000
Libby Kelley
Executive Director
Council on Wireless Technology Impacts
936 B Seventh Street, #206
Novato, California 94945
Voice: 415 892-1863
Fax: 415 892-3108
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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com