An IBM spokesman told CNET News.com that the cases had been
"concluded and dismissed", and refused to comment on whether a
settlement had been reached.
The announcement follows two test cases earlier this year, which
resulted in a verdict that the computer manufacturer was not
responsible for the worker's cancers.
Former IBM workers Alida Hernandez, who suffered breast cancer,
and James Moore, suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, took IBM to
court in November 2003 in an action designed to bypass California's
state workers' compensation legislation. Normally workers are
unable to sue their employers for damages but gain compensation
through a different procedure under the state law.
Because Hernandez and Moore were seeking damages not just to
compensate the harm they suffered, but also to punish IBM – known
as punitive damages – the crucial issue in the case was what IBM
actually knew. To win punitive damages, Californian law required
the plaintiffs to prove that IBM knew that the chemicals were
affecting its employees and that IBM hid that knowledge.
In the event the workers failed in that action, with the jury
ruling that they had not been chemically poisoned while at
work.
Around 240 other workers and families of former workers, most of
whom were employed in IBM's semiconductor and disk drive
manufacturing processes, have also filed lawsuits against the
company, but all of the remaining California based claims have now
been dismissed, according to reports.
The other suits, which will be based on the laws of different
states, have yet to come to trial, although in March the computer
giant settled a $100 million New York claim alleging that birth
defects suffered by the daughter of former IBM worker Heather
Curtis were caused by the chemicals that Curtis came into contact
with at work.
IBM has always denied the claims, maintaining that it has done
everything it could to provide a safe environment for its
workers.
