Nehmer

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

BEVERLY NEHMER, et al., Plaintiffs, No. C 86-06160 WHA

v.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS ORDER RE CY PRES AWARD

AFFAIRS,

13 Defendant.

15 INTRODUCTION In this action settled decades ago, plaintiffs ask the district court to order cy pres awards where payments are due under the consent decree but no class member can be found. This order holds that no such cy pres relief is available under the decree, any statute, or caselaw. STATEMENT During the Vietnam War, our military sprayed Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides on dense jungles — defoliating trees and harming service members. After the war, Congress passed the Dioxin Act of 1984. It directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop a framework for granting disability claims to veterans suffering dioxin-related disabilities. The VA’s implementing regulations, however, identified only one disease as presumptively caused by dioxin.…