Jury Awards $500,000 Punitive Damages in DuPont Case
July 08 2016 - 5:55PM
Dow Jones News
By Josh Beckerman
A jury awarded $500,000 in punitive damages to an Ohio man who
won a suit against DuPont Co. earlier this week after alleging that
he got testicular cancer from the company's C8 chemical.
The suit is one of about 3,500 alleging a link between illnesses
and the Wilmington, Del., chemical company's discharging of C8 into
the Ohio River.
On Wednesday, the jury awarded plaintiff David Freeman $5.1
million in compensatory damages.
DuPont is appealing the awards. The company maintains there were
only small amounts of C8 in drinking water and has said it worked
closely with regulators to develop replacement materials.
The chemical company and other large C8 manufacturers or users
agreed in 2006 to phase out its production and use by December
2015.
DuPont has said that Chemours Co., which DuPont spun off last
year, agreed to indemnify DuPont in the lawsuits over C8, which was
used to produce Teflon and is also known as PFOA.
After Wednesday's verdict and again on Friday, Chemours noted
that DuPont is the named defendant and is directly liable, and said
"in the event DuPont claims that it is entitled to indemnification
from Chemours as to some or all of the judgment, Chemours retains
its defenses to such claims."
Still, Chemours shares rose 17% to $7.68 on Friday, while DuPont
rose 3% to $63.69, suggesting some investors had expected the award
for punitive damages would be larger.
Mr. Freeman's case was one of six bellwether trials expected to
determine how DuPont should proceed in the other C8 cases.
DuPont is appealing a $1.6 million October verdict in one of the
other suits. One case was withdrawn by plaintiffs and the remaining
three were settled for amounts that were immaterial to DuPont, the
company said Friday.
Of the approximately 3,500 suits, less than 10% allege claims of
cancer, the company said.
The Chemours spinoff was part of DuPont's effort to move away
from lower growth commodity businesses. In December, Dow Chemical
Co. and DuPont agreed to merge.
Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 08, 2016 17:40 ET (21:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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