Chapter 20 - The company pays
Mercer Holdings had arguments.
Historical entities dissolved.
Corporate succession complicated.
Insurance.
Prior owners.
Statutes.
Allocation.
Lawyers could have litigated for a decade.
We still litigated plenty.
But the board approved a broad environmental remediation fund before every legal question was resolved.
Why?
Because contamination existed.
Several former industrial properties required investigation.
Two had meaningful cleanup needs.
One nearby neighborhood raised vapor-intrusion concerns.
That was the moment my family’s private tragedy became public responsibility.
Residents did not care that I had been eleven in 1987.
Correctly.
They wanted testing.
Information.
Cleanup.
Relocation assistance where necessary.
Medical monitoring in affected areas where experts recommended it.
The company spent tens of millions over several years.
Not because I heroically wrote one check.
Boards.
Insurers.
Regulators.
Settlements.
Corporate reserves.
My personal family entities contributed too.
The Falcon buyer sued over alleged nondisclosure.
We settled after ugly discovery.
Our company valuation fell.
I was still rich.
Absurdly rich.
That made reporters write:
“Mercer survives scandal.”
Wrong frame.
The question was never whether I survived financially.
It was whether other people had to carry the cost of Mercer secrecy again.
I could not repair my grandfather.
My father.
May you like
Genevieve.
I could change one direction.
