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Federal appeals court decision reinstating parts of suit against Union Carbide

This appeal presents the latest of many legal battles stemming from perhaps history's worst industrial catastrophe: the 1984 toxic gas disaster at a chemical plant in Bhopal, India. Earlier actions included scores of individual and class-action complaints filed in federal courts throughout the United States and consolidated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Those claims were dismissed in deference to the Indian government's efforts on behalf of disaster victims to pursue a global resolution in India of claims related to the disaster. The ensuing litigation in India eventually produced a settlement agreement, which gained the final approval of the Supreme Court of India in 1991.