On July 26, 2019 the High Court of the Republic of South Africa issued a final opinion approving the settlement of a class action which was filed on behalf of former gold miners in that country who suffer from or have suffered from either silicosis or tuberculosis as a result of their work in the mines. A copy of the opinions can be found here and here. Locks Law Firm spent considerable time and resources assisting with IT support and data analysis on the case from 2012 to 2017.
Leon Carelli and his predecessor Chris Myers designed and perfected a database which was used to compile and track information regarding many thousands of class members. The Firm had an average of two full time paralegals working with this database, entering information from questionnaires which were transferred to us from South Africa. Leon also provided other invaluable assistance on IT issues to the Hausfeld Firm.
This is a truly groundbreaking settlement and opinion. The conditions under which these black miners were forced to work were alleged to cause epidemic levels of occupational disease in the class of miners. The success in litigating a class of this size and complexity against an entire industry is unprecedented and the result is groundbreaking. I am personally extremely proud of our involvement in the case. Everyone who worked on the case and every employee of the firm should be proud also. Congratulations to all of the Firms who were of record in this case, both in the United States and South Africa, and thank you to the Hausfeld Firm for involving us. Great job Leon and everyone who worked on the case.
