NINTH CIRCUIT COURT DENIES BOEING PETITION IN ROCKETDYNE CASE

On June 10, 2003, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied The Boeing Company's petitions for rehearing of a case in which San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley residents charged Boeing with contaminating neighborhoods surrounding its Rocketdyne nuclear and rocket testing facilities in the northwest San Fernando Valley and Santa Susana mountains.

CONTACT:
A. Barry Cappello      
Cappello & McCann LLP            R
805-564-2444               80
abcappello@cappellomccann.com          

Diane Rumbaugh
Rumbaugh Public Relations
805-493-2877
rumbaugh@earthlink.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 23, 2003

NINTH CIRCUIT COURT DENIES BOEING PETITION
IN ROCKETDYNE CASE

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.--The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied The Boeing Company's petitions for rehearing of a case in which San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley residents charged Boeing with contaminating neighborhoods surrounding its Rocketdyne nuclear and rocket testing facilities in the northwest San Fernando Valley and Santa Susana mountains (O'Connor v. Boeing North American Inc., 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 24253 (9th Cir. June 10, 2003). Residents claim that toxic discharge from the site caused cancer and other illnesses.

In November 2002 and in this recent denial for rehearing, the Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's finding that tossed out some of the residents' claims on statute of limitations grounds. Articles appearing in local newspapers between 1989 and 1991 allegedly described Rocketdyne's toxic waste problems. The lower court reasoned that residents should have filed their lawsuits after the articles appeared and thus the one-year statute of limitations had long expired. The Court of Appeals disagreed.

The Ninth Circuit's decision saves approximately 110 cases, bringing the total number of cases to approximately 300. "Now that the Court of Appeals has resolved the statute of limitations issues, we expect that a significant number of additional cases will now qualify for prosecution," says A. Barry Cappello, managing partner with Santa Barbara's Cappello & McCann LLP and attorney for the plaintiffs.
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