Stephenson v. Dow Chemical Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
273 F.3d 249 (2d Cir. 2001)
A 1984 class action settlement over Vietnam-era Agent Orange exposure created a fund to compensate exposed veterans, but the settlement specifically excluded payments for any death or disability occurring after December 31, 1994, and the fund itself expired around that time. Joe Isaacson (plaintiff) was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1996, and Daniel Stephenson (plaintiff) with bone marrow cancer in 1998 -- both after the fund had expired. They sued Dow Chemical and others (defendants); the district court dismissed their consolidated claims as barred by res judicata based on the 1984 settlement, and they appealed.
Whether a prior class action settlement judgment can bar later claims from class members whose injuries manifested only after the settlement fund had already expired.