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April 16 and 17, 1947. The Commission shall limit itself to the determination of (1) the amount to be allowed and paid pursuant to this Act, and (2) the individuals, firms, companies, associations, and corporations entitled to receive the

same.

(b) Prior to the expiration of sixty days after the date on which two of its members shall have been appointed and have taken office, the Commission shall promulgate and publish rules of procedure for handling the claims to which this section applies. It shall determine and fix damages, if any, in the case of each claim within twelve months from the date on which the claim was submitted. (c) No claim shall be allowed unless, prior to the expiration of one hundred and eighty days after the date on which two members of the Commission shall have been appointed and have taken office, the claimant submits such claim in writing in accordance with rules prescribed by the Commission.

(d) No claim shall be approved for payment under this Act unless it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Commission that such claim was a part of a civil action filed against the United States in a United States district court prior to April 25, 1950; except that the Commission, for good cause shown, may waive the limitation date of April 25, 1950, where it is shown that the claimant, because of infancy, insanity, or other reason, was unable to bring such civil action.

(e) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, in carrying out its provisions the Commission shall be governed by the law of the State of Texas.

(f) Claims for damages based on death may be submitted only by persons, or their legal representatives, authorized to sue for wrongful death under the revised statutes of the State of Texas.

SEC. 4. (a) The Secretary of the Treasury shall pay, out of moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, in full settlement, the claims referred to in this Act in the amounts approved for payment by the Commission.

(b) Any payment made under subsection (a) shall be in full settlement and discharge of all claims against the Government of the United States.

(c) Before paying any claim allowed by the Commission, the Secretary of the Treasury shall require of and receive from the claimant an assignment to the United States, to the extent of the payment to be made by the Secretary, of any right of action arising out of the Texas City disaster which such claimant may have against a third party.

SEC. 5. No attorney or agent shall receive, an account of services rendered in connection with any claim allowed under this Act, in excess of 15 per centum of the amount paid under this Act, any contract to the contrary notwithstanding. Whoever violates this section shall be fined not to exceed $5,000.

SEC. 6. The Commission, twenty-four months after the date of enactment of this Act, shall transmit to the Congress a report containing

(a) a statement of each claim submitted in accordance with this Act which has not been settled by it, with supporting papers and a report of its findings of facts and recommendations; and

(b) a report of each claim settled and paid pursuant to this Act, which report shall include a brief statement concerning the character and justicé of the claim, the amount claimed, and the amount approved and paid. SEC. 7. At the close of the sixtieth day after the date on which its report is submitted to the Congress pursuant to section 6, the Commission shall cease to exist.

Mr. LANE. Without objection I will have the committee report containing a history and analysis of the problems on Texas City inserted in the record at this point.

(Report set out in appendix p. 142).

Mr. LANE. This is a matter on which this committee held extensive hearings on December 16, 17, and 18, 1953, on a bill which was then House Resolution 296. The committee not only held hearings and conferences here in the Capital but they also made a trip to see for themselves at Texas City, Tex., some of the scenes of the place where this disaster occurred on April 16 and 17, 1947.

Hearings were held at Texas City and also at Galveston, Tex. As a result of those hearings that bill was favorably reported by the subcommittee and the full Committee on the Judiciary and passed the

House and was then considered in the Senate but the bill failed to become law (H. R. 9785, 83d Cong.).

For that reason this committee must now go over this entire matter again because there is a new makeup of this Committee on the Judiciary and subcommittee that will have a hearing on the bill here. I know that all of us on the committee are pleased to have as the first witness our Congressman from Texas, Congressman Thompson, who has been vitally interested in this subject matter for a long period of time and has put in a good many hours with the subcommittee last year. He has also been with the members of the subcommittee and helped to bring about these hearings to work out some legislation which may be considered in reference to the subject matter.

The first witness will be Congressman Thompson. We are pleased to have you here this morning and I know you are well versed in the subject matter and if you will be kind enough, Congressman, to come to the table we will be pleased to hear you.

Mr. THOMPSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

STATEMENT OF HON. CLARK W. THOMPSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS

Mr. THOMPSON. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I represent the Ninth Congressional District in the State of Texas.

Mr. Chairman, if it suits your pleasure I would like to briefly review the legislative history of the Texas City disaster claims legislation and bring it up to date. And perhaps, to a very small extent, touch on what happened in Texas City for the benefit of some who may not have been in the hearings before.

The disaster occurred just about 8 years ago. It was caused by the blowing up of a ship at 9 o'clock on the morning of the 16th of April 1947. This was followed by the blowing up of another ship shortly thereafter that night or early in the morning of the 17th.

It was obviously a manmade disaster. It did a terrific amount of damage. It killed 570 people and hurt thousands. It laid waste a large portion of Texas City. There was hardly a house in the community that was not damaged to some extent.

Being obviously a manmade disaster an effort was shortly commenced to find out who was to blame. It was discovered that the explosion was caused by a product labeled as fertilizer which was manufactured under Government supervision and in Government ordnance plants.

Since, apparently, the Government had control of the situation and could have either warned the people of the danger of the commodity being handled or could, perhaps, have taken the necessary steps to keep it from exploding, suit was filed in behalf of the injured in the Federal District Court of the Southern District of Texas under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

The long history of the litigation can better be told by some of the attorneys who are here today. For my part, as a layman, I may simply say that the lower court held the Government negligent on eighty-odd counts and liable for the damage.

The case was appealed and finally went to the Supreme Court and just about 2 years ago the Supreme Court on a 4 to 3 division held that the Tort Claims Act did not apply.

There was still no doubt of the Government's part in the accident and there was in my own mind and in the minds of a great number of us who had followed it from the beginning-there was in my mind a very strong conviction that the Government was still responsible even though for legal reasons the Tort Claims Act may not have applied.

For that reason, after consulting with experts on your own committee, Mr. Chairman, and others who were capable and competent to advise as to the proper procedure, because of the magnitude of the case itself, it seemed best to start the legislative procedure by having a committee appointed from the Judiciary Committee to go to Texas City or any other place they thought advisable and there to investigate the facts, look into the legal background and then to report to the Congress on whether or not the Government seemed to be liable and, if so, by what means the injured could be compensated.

The committee was appointed accordingly. Those who were on it— the then chairman, the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Jonas; the gentleman from Massachusetts, the present chairman of the committee, Mr. Lane; the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Hyde, and I am glad to see that he is keeping up his interest in the case although I understand he is not a member of this particular subcommittee.

The committee, after long deliberations, and after hearings on the ground and again here in Washington, reported that the Government was liable. A bill was introduced about a year ago by Judge Jonas to provide compensation for the claimants. That bill passed the House of Representatives without a dissenting vote but very late in the session. It was then sent to the Senate where hearings were held but only days remained for us to explain the situation to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and then to get it through that body. Ultimately the Senate did pass their version of the bill, and I am happy to say without a dissenting vote. It was too late then to go into conference and so, with the differences between the two bodies, the bill died on the calendar.

In each case, Mr. Chairman, may I remind the committee the House and the Senate admitted the Government's liability. It was only a question of how to compensate the injured and to what extent. There was never any question that I know of that the individuals injured should be compensated.

So, at the beginning of this session and for many weeks preceding it, of course, we studied the situation and finally decided on the bill H. R. 4045 as being the best approach to the settlement of the claims. An identical bill was introduced in the Senate and sponsored, by the way, by the two State Senators, Senator Lyndon Johnson and Senator Price Daniel. I understand Senator Daniel is the author but under the rules of his own Judiciary Committee he sits in as an observer. We made every effort to draw a bill that would be acceptable to both bodies so we could expedite the settlement of such claims as you may consider are justified, and not ask these people injured 8 years ago to wait any longer than this particular session of the Congress.

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The approach to the settlement of this situation is to appoint a commission-let the President appoint a three man commission to go wherever necessary, presumably to Texas City, to evaluate the claims and then to tell Congress how much is due on each one.

It is a considerable job. There will be some 8,000 claimants. It is not as bad as it might look to some who have not studied the history of the case because the FBI has already evaluated the individual claims. Almost all of them-although there may be a few still waiting-have been assessed. Apparently after the lower court held the Government liable the Government proceeded just as though they would ultimately have to pay the claims.

That brings the situation down to date, Mr. Chairman.

I have here with me on my left Judge Russel Markwell who was in the case ever since the beginning and who has a great number of individual claimants. Mr. Austin Bryan is also here and will be remembered by the members of the subcommittee for his able presentation of the legal background and also of the facts.

Also here today is the Honorable T. R. Robinson, county judge of Galveston County. That, I believe, tells the layman's story, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. LANE. Congressman Thompson, for the information of the rest of the committee, will you tell us how long the FBI agents, and how many of them, were in Texas City investigating these claims and whether or not all of these claimants have now been fully investigated and the demands made as to the claimants' requests and the amounts to be paid these claimants by the Department of Justice being represented by the FBI agents so we will have some information as to, not only the number of claims, but also whether or not some definite effort has been made to adjudicate the extent of these claims.

Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. Chairman, I have relied on the advice of counsel because they worked so closely with it. I understand that there were 49 members of the FBI assigned to this case; that they worked for approximately a year and the present status is that the claims and just how many are still not assessed I will have to ask my attorneys again-but almost all of them are laid out with the amount originally claimed and the amount which the FBI recommended was justified and all of the padding taken out. Each has the vital statistics-how many in the family and the life expectancy and so on.

So, the spadework has been done to finally settle these claims. Mr. LANE. And these claims are also broken down in the personal injuries, property damage claims, and death claims?

Mr. THOMPSON. That is correct.

Mr. LANE. This committee, through the staff, has been making arrangements with the Department of Justice to see whether or not these records can be turned over to this committee for the consideration of the committee in deciding what action may be taken insofar as the Texas City bill is concerned, H. R. 4045, or any substitute bill which may be adopted.

Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. Chairman, these records are, of course, available to the Department of Justice. Some of them are in the hands of our own attorneys. Mr. Markwell told me yesterday he had them

all tabulated and they are on file with you now, a typical set of claims all ready to act upon.

At the close of the Senate hearings last year 1 think we were in accord on a bill which would be satisfactory and which would be accepted by the House and the Senate, and I believe that view was shared by the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Hyde.

What it provided was this that for the time being, and in this particular bill, we would settle only the individual claims. It was understood that any other subrogated claims would still be taken up but in the interest of humanity we had to settle such cases as the one you remember so well, the man without any legs.

I believe if you will indulge me I would like to tell you the story for the benefit of those not there.

At the hearings in Texas City the individuals who had been hurt had been testifying. I had just done as we are accustomed to do. As we looked over the audience there were approximately 250 people who sat with us all day. Just before adjournment the gentleman from Massachusetts, the present chairman, asked the then chairman, Judge Jonas, if he could request the audience that whoever had been injured or had someone close to him or her injured, would they please rise. With the exception of the staff members and some members of the press, everybody arose except one man. He had his leg shot off and could not rise.

It was a very dramatic experience.

Getting back to the action of the Senate, we thought we could first compensate these people. And it is my understanding that that was agreeable to both the Army who were being consulted without being the ones to handle the payment and also the Department of Justice. And I have tried in the approach to this bill, H. R. 4045, to draw something that would be acceptable to all the departments involved. While they, of course, will speak for themselves, I have come away from conferences with them in the belief that they would not object to reasonable settlement, certainly of the individual claims. I have appreciated the help I have had from them unofficially and quite informally in preparing this bill.

Mr. LANE. Congressman Thompson, the reason for the delay since the time of the disaster, April 16 and 17, 1947, to date, is the fact that all of this period of time, with the execption of last year, this matter was in litigation from one court to the other until the decision was finally rendered by the Supreme Court in a 4-to-3 decision that it did not come within the Federal Tort Claims Act. So it was a matter for the Congress instead of for the courts.

Mr. THOMPSON. That is correct.

Mr. LANE. So we are only dealing now with the claims of the individuals.

Mr. THOMPSON. That is correct. I think Congress has moved with reasonable dispatch on it. It was only 2 years ago that the Supreme Court decision was handed down. We immediately moved through the subcommittee, which went to Texas and investigated just after the 1st session of the 83d Congress. Then we moved a year ago to perfect the legislation and present it to the Congress, and we did succeed in passing it which, I think, was moving with reasonable dispatch.

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