Partial Settlement Reached

The Holts reached a $1.75 million settlement with the City and County of Dickson on December 8, 2011.  As part of the settlement the Holts dismissed all claims against the City and County in exchange for $1.75 million to be paid to the ten surviving members of the Holt family and on behalf of the family patriarch Harry Holt who died in 2007.  The Holts sued the City and County for personal injury, property damage and civil rights violations stemming from contamination of the Holt's water that experts determined came from hazardous waste dumped at the nearby landfill jointly operated by the City and County.  The lawsuit continues against the last remaining defendant, the State of Tennessee, who the Holts allege discriminated against them for over a decade by failing to warn them that tests of their well water indicated levels of contamination above the EPA limit while the State immediately alerted white families whose well water tests also showed contamination.