JUDGE PARES PLAINTIFFS DECISION COMES IN BOEING CLASS-ACTION.

Byline: Daily News

A federal judge on Monday decertified most elements of a class-action lawsuit against Boeing over contamination from its Simi Hills and San Fernando Valley facilities.

Boeing officials welcomed Judge Audrey B. Collins' preliminary decision, saying there is no evidence that the company's activities caused injury.

However, attorneys for the plaintiffs - who potentially numbered 300,000 - said they would consider an appeal.

``We're very happy with the decision. We hope that this will help us to resolve this case much more quickly,'' said Boeing attorney Gary Black. ``We don't believe there is any evidence of anyone having been injured by the operations of any (of these) facilities.''

The suit represents residents living in an area bound roughly by the Ventura, Ronald Reagan and San Diego freeways and Highway 23, who claimed a toxic legacy from decades of rocket engine testing.

The suit included three classes: those seeking medical monitoring, those claiming property damage and those seeking damages under state business and federal environmental laws. The suit excludes those who claim to have been made ill by toxic contamination.

On Monday, Collins decertified the medical monitoring and property damage classes, and part of the class seeking damages under government laws.

``It's a terribly disappointing ruling. It affects a half-million people in the San Fernando and Simi valleys who had an opportunity to be protected from the ravages of cancer by being medically monitored,'' said plaintiffs' attorney A. Barry Cappello. ``Unfortunately, they will have no remedy.''

Plaintiffs now will have to bring their cases forward individually if they want to pursue legal action - something Cappello said was unlikely.

Collins' decision - which will be finalized in the next few days - was a reversal of her 1998 ruling that allowed the case to move forward as a group.

Attorneys said her decision in March to dismiss dozens of personal injury lawsuits weighed heavily in Monday's decision.

In her March ruling, Collins said that plaintiffs had waited too long to sue, especially because the lab's toxic legacy received extensive coverage in the Daily News. This month, she reinstated five of the 57 cases that had been dismissed, among more than 200 personal injury cases against Boeing being handled by Cappello's firm.

``She now sees the case differently than she saw it two years ago,'' said Black, adding that the judge's ruling on the statute of limitations coupled with Monday's decision ``change the nature of the case drastically.''

The Daily News first reported in 1989 that radioactive contamination was found in soil and water in a portion of the Santa Susana Field Lab, which sits in the hills between Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

Two surveys of worker health by the University of California, Los Angeles, found higher cancer mortality rates among workers in certain jobs at the lab. The site is under a federally funded toxic cleanup expected to be completed in coming years.