By Jonathan Stempel
June 24 (Reuters) - A business controlled by the American billionaire Ira Rennert reached a $150 million settlement in the United States with 1,373 Peruvians who claimed they were poisoned by lead and other toxic substances while growing up near a Peruvian smelter, lawyers for the plaintiffs said on Wednesday.
The settlement with Doe Run Resources, part of Rennert's New York-based holding company Renco Group, was announced in St. Louis federal court on Tuesday, when the first of four so-called bellwether trials in the 19-year-old case was scheduled to begin.
• Doe Run and the other defendants did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, the plaintiffs' lawyer Jerome Schlichter said in a phone interview.
• The plaintiffs accused Doe Run of releasing lead, ***** nic, cadmium and other hazardous substances from a smelter in La Oroya, Peru, which a subsidiary purchased in 1997.
June 24 (Reuters) - A business controlled by the American billionaire Ira Rennert reached a $150 million settlement in the United States with 1,373 Peruvians who claimed they were poisoned by lead and other toxic substances while growing up near a Peruvian smelter, lawyers for the plaintiffs said on Wednesday.
The settlement with Doe Run Resources, part of Rennert's New York-based holding company Renco Group, was announced in St. Louis federal court on Tuesday, when the first of four so-called bellwether trials in the 19-year-old case was scheduled to begin.
• Doe Run and the other defendants did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, the plaintiffs' lawyer Jerome Schlichter said in a phone interview.
• The plaintiffs accused Doe Run of releasing lead, ***** nic, cadmium and other hazardous substances from a smelter in La Oroya, Peru, which a subsidiary purchased in 1997.
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