By Gordon Berry

A FAMILY from Newburgh who were closely involved in a lengthy legal battle against the giant DuPont Corporation are to share in a $9 million settlement made as a result of eye defects allegedly caused by the fungicide Benlate.

The Attenborough family became involved in years of court action after son Jonathan, who is now 17, was born with micropthalmia which resulted from damage in the womb and his eye sockets failing to fully develop before birth.

It is believed that Jonathan was exposed to the fungicide when his parents rented a cottage on a Fife farm, next to fields which were regularly sprayed.

As a result Jonathan is blind in one eye and partially blind in the other, and the family are among 32 from Britain and New Zealand who will now receive payouts.

Jonathan’s father Peter, who last night told The Courier he is unable to make any comment on the settlement due to legal restraints imposed in the USA, became a leading campaigner in the struggle for compensation.

The case was eventually decided at the Delaware Supreme Court.

Mr Attenborough became the Scottish spokesman of the Micro and Anopthalmic Children Society (MACS)—there are a number of other families affected north of the Border—and had to endure a legal debate which contained several high and low points before DuPont decided to settle.

Details of the settlement have been filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and DuPont said it had reached a tentative settlement of lawsuits filed in 1997 on behalf of children in Britain and New Zealand born without eyes or with abnormally small eyes.

The same defects were said to have been noted in the offspring of lab rats exposed to Benlate. DuPont began manufacturing Benlate around 50 years ago.

It was withdrawn from the market at the end of 2001 in the face of mounting crop damage claims.

The company is said to have already paid more than $1 billion in settlements and legal fees on claims of damage from Benlate.

DuPont has said it will not comment beyond the details filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission but it has been made clear that the settlement would resolve all birth defects cases known by DuPont to exist.