Mattel named in wrongful death suit

Company says case of View-Master worker should be dismissed

By Ben Jacklet

The Portland Tribune, Apr 22, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The family of a longtime employee at Mattel’s former View-Master plant in Beaverton has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming that polluted drinking water at the factory caused or contributed to the liver cancer that killed him.

Gary Evans worked at the View-Master plant for more than 20 years. He died at age 61 in February 2002. The lawsuit, brought by his daughter, Amanda, charges that Mattel is liable for the death because the factory’s drinking water was contaminated with the industrial solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE.

“We believe we can show that Gary Evans was killed by TCE,” said Portland attorney Karl Anuta, who is representing the Evans family.

Mattel has long denied the link between the health problems of former employees and the TCE in the factory’s drinking water. The company is arguing that the Evans lawsuit should be dismissed because, under Oregon law, workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries.

Dan Nottage, general manager of Mattel Portland and the sole remaining Mattel employee locally, said the company has paid for 1,952 medical exams for former employees since the TCE was found, and “we’ve found nothing that was directly linked to TCE.”

TCE was discovered at more than 300 times the federal allowable limit in the well that supplied the factory with drinking water in 1998. A subsequent investigation found that the solvent had been dumped onto company property by factory workers and had seeped down over time to pollute the groundwater.

Mattel officials told the Portland Tribune in 2002 that they erred by not testing their water for chemical contamination, as is required by law.

The TCE-contaminated water was hauled off and disposed of as hazardous waste in 1998. Since then dozens of former employees have attempted to win compensation from Mattel through lawsuits and workers’ compensation claims. All have failed.

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