Miles W. Lord

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Miles Welton Lord (born 1919 in Dean Lake Township, Minnesota) is a former federal judge, appointed to the U. S. District Court, District of Minnesota by President Lyndon B. Johnson on February 10, 1966 to fill the vacancy left by Judge Dennis F. Donovan. He served as chief judge on the district court from 1981-1985 and retired in September 1985.[1] He currently practices law in Minnesota.[2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Lord received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Minnesota in 1946, and his law degree from University of Minnesota Law School in 1948. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1944-1945, and served as an Assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota in 1951. He became Minnesota’s Attorney General from 1955-1960 and a full U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 1961 until his appointment to the Federal bench.[1]

He lives in Chanhassen, Minnesota, with his wife Maxine.

[edit] Activist Judge

Lord had become known as a activist judge who saw the law as a means to make big corporations pay for the damages caused, both directly or indirectly, to people and to the environment.

[edit] Landmark Decisions

In his first landmark and historic decision in 1973, when the Reserve Mining Company’s processing plant at Silver Bay, Minnesota was dumping 47 tons of waste rock into Lake Superior every minute, Lord ultimately forced Reserve to stop dumping the pollutants, taconite tailings.
"This court cannot honor profit over human life", stated Lord in his ruling. [3]

Later, he pursued the A.H. Robbins Company for malpractice in issuing the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device, which was on sale from 1970-1974 and caused at least 18 deaths and thousands of injuries (350,000 women have claimed injury).[4] The trial was for the injured, as he felt the deaths were too hard to “pinpoint the responsibility”. Judge Lord operated on the belief that life is priceless, while big business used the cost to benefit risk analysis.

“ The whole cost-benefit analysis is warped. They say, well you can kill so many people if the benefits are great enough. Then they can take the benefits and circulate them through the given industry, they circulate them through the oil company, through the gasoline station, through the garage, the hardware store, the drugstore, the shoemaker, the grocery store, and if they don't have enough statistics there they just circulate them through a bunch of other businesses. Once they put a price on human life, all is lost. Life is sacred. Life is priceless.[5] ”

What made this case one that shocked the judicial and corporate world was Lord’s rebuke and personal accountability to the corporate heads. To settle seven lawsuits, he made Robbins top three executive sign a $4.6 million settlement agreement and personally held them liable. The company ended up paying more that $220 million in compensation and $13 million in punitive damages to thousands of plaintiffs.

[edit] Judicial Review

For his actions on the Robbins case, Lord was subject to a judicial review panel on his professional and judicial conduct.[6] The charges were dismissed and Lord went on to serve another year until his retirement.[7]

[edit] References and Citations

  1. ^ a b Federal Court Biography, accessed 11 Feb 2007.
  2. ^ The Law Offices of Miles W. Lord webpage, accessed 11 Feb 2007.
  3. ^ Time Magazine, The Classic Case, Monday, May. 06, 1974
  4. ^ An interview with Lord
  5. ^ ibid.
  6. ^ Time Magazine, “A Panel Tries to Judge a Judge”, Jul. 23, 1984, By MICHAEL S. SERRILL
  7. ^ “AROUND THE NATION; Panel Dismisses Action Against Federal Judge”, December 27, 1984

[edit] See Also

[edit] External links

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