RESIDENTS WEIGH LOCKHEED SUIT : CLASS ACTION LITIGATION EXPANDED TO INCLUDE FUTURE PERSONAL INJURY CLAIMS.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

Some 200 neighbors of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s former aircraft plant attended a public meeting Saturday to learn about a class-action toxics suit against the company, expressing anxiety about health risks to their families and declining property values.

The suit, filed Aug. 14, seeks an unspecified amount in property damages and a medical monitoring system for early detection of illnesses that might be related to any toxic exposure from Lockheed's B-1 site. The plant, which manufactured military aircraft such as the P-38 World War II fighter and the commercial L-1011, was shut down in 1990.

Lawyers filed the suit on behalf of residents left out of a recently disclosed $60 million settlement Lockheed reached with 1,300 Burbank residents through a private mediation process.

The attorneys held the meeting Saturday to explain the case to residents and to let them know of plans to expand the class action suit to cover personal injury claims that might arise in the future.

One young mother of two, Rhonda Rodriguez, wondered aloud why she and her family should stay in their home next door to the site and ``wait to be contaminated,'' then added bitterly that plunging real estate values have left her little choice but to remain.

``I can't sell my house, I'd have to give it away,'' Rodriguez said, clutching her 1-year-old daughter, Jessica. ``If I rent it, what am I doing? I'm subjecting the renters to contamination.''

Besides toxics emitted during 60 years of operation before the plant that manufactured military aircraft such as the P-38 World War II fighter and the commercial L-1011 was shut down in 1990, Rodriguez and others voiced concerns about exposure to chemical vapors that would be brought to the surface when the cleanup of contaminated soil begins near their homes.

Some wanted to know if it was best to pursue personal injury and property damage claims on her own or trust the recovery of potential losses to the class-action suit brought in August by Marlene Hook and Carmen Lacey, two women who own homes about 50 feet from the site.

Lawyers said the class action suit was designed to automatically cover anyone in the affected area around the 103-acre site, including parts of Burbank, Glendale, North Hollywood and Sun Valley.

Those filing a separate suit would be excluded from any judgment or settlement reached as a result of the class action suit, attorneys said.

The class action suit was filed on behalf of those left out of the Lockheed settlement, which provides for awards of up to $300,000 to residents who claimed their health and home values had been damaged by decades of manufacturing operations at the plant.

Lockheed did not accept liability in the secretly mediated deal, which was disclosed by the Daily News.

But sources close to the settlement have told the paper that Lockheed was faced with dozens of cancer cases near the plant, which had a history of air emissions of the known carcinogen Hexavalent chromium and toxic solvents in the soil and groundwater.

Chrystal Distefano, 56, who lives about 2 -1/2 blocks from the plant, said a survey she and neighbors conducted of 38 households in a one-block stretch of Parish Place between Burbank and Chandler boulevards found 16 cases of cancer, including nine that had ended in death.

``I was very concerned,'' said Distefano, who said she herself had had two bouts of cancer and continues to suffer from respiratory problems.

Among the team of lawyers brought on to handle the suit is Joseph W. Cotchett, who gained national recognition as the lead counsel representing 23,000 plaintiffs in the collapse of Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings & Loan Association. In that case in 1992, he won one of the largest jury awards ever, $3.3 billion, later reduced to $1.75 billion.

``You've got to pay for your pollution,'' he told those attending Saturday's meeting. ``You cannot throw a can of paint down the drain in your backyard. . . . (Lockheed) didn't throw paint, they threw materials that you couldn't walk within 10 feet of, and nothing happened to them.''

The company has maintained that its operations at the B-1 site just southeast of Burbank Airport never posed a public health risk.

Sources close to the settlement have said Lockheed settled with 1,300 residents out of fear that a jury might award high damages should their claims go to trial, even though the company insisted there was no link between the chemicals and any of the cancers.