The witness, Prof. M. Echo: Yes
Adv. Dr. Tal Rotman: That you didn't measure people's feelings about quality or air pollution coming from factories
The witness, Prof. M. Echo: True
Cause of Action: Personal Claim
- Section 4(a)(1) of the Class Actions Law states that "a person who has a cause of action in a lawsuit or in a matter as stated in section 3(a), which raises substantive questions of fact or law that are common to all members of a group of persons – in the name of that group E" may be filed.
- As may be recalled, in their response of August 16, 2020, the Applicants noted, inter alia, that the application for approval in question relates to "...All the residents of Haifa Bay who are suffering from anxiety due to the fact that there is an excess of cancer and cardiovascular events, so it is clear that they have not yet contracted cancer and are only claiming the damage caused by the infringement of." (ibid., section 2).
- Similarly, the essence of the application for approval was described in the applicants' summaries:
This application was filed by four residents of Haifa Bay, representing 530,000 residents, who for decades were exposed to pollution emitted from the respondents' factories and as a result to an excess morbidity of radiovascular diseases and cancer diseases (paragraph 1 of the summaries).
- As detailed at length above, the applicants have not been able to prove an excess of morbidity in Haifa Bay in general, and one that originates only from the emissions of the factories, in particular.
- The Applicants, as detailed above, have not been able to prove that they suffered subjective consequential damage that constitutes a cause of action. No violation of the applicants' autonomy has been proven.
- The applicants also failed to persuade or prove their claims regarding their personal fear, distress and anxiety due to the alleged air pollution.
- In this context, the expert, Prof. Lahad, was also asked as follows:
Adv. Dr. Tal Rotman: Have you met them? Have you examined? Have you examined, you are a psychologist who specializes in trauma and specializes in anxiety, and I ask if you have examined the four people who filed the class action in order to examine whether they themselves are examining, suffering from symptoms of anxiety, depression, trauma, etc. Have you checked?