By Tom Wilber
Press & Sun-Bulletin

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ENDICOTT — Negotiations to settle more than $100 million in health and property claims related to pollution from the former IBM factory have failed, leaving attorneys representing nearly 1,000 area clients planning to file a lawsuit against the company in January.

IBM’s offer of $3 million to settle all claims, with a release from further action, fell well short of expectation, according to a letter dated Nov. 27 from Levene Gouldin & Thompson to clients.

The plaintiffs will move ahead with litigation “based on these very disappointing developments, especially in light of more than three years we had spent meeting with IBM in what we always assumed was good faith bargaining,” the letter states.

A group of lawyers representing the plaintiffs are meeting in Philadelphia Thursday to plan the next step.

According to the letter, the $3 million did not include personal injury claims, which IBM believes are without merit. But the settlement would include a provision that would release the company from those claims, anyway.

The claims stem from a subterranean plume of trichloroethylene (TCE) found to be creating fumes and wafting into homes and buildings near the plant.

Lawyers for IBM cited changes in the company’s management that created “a new attitude … concerning claims arising from chemical contamination, and the type of litigation through which contamination claims are asserted and resolved,” according to the letter.

IBM representatives could not be reached Wednesday night. In the past, the company has declined to comment on litigation as a matter of company policy.