Lawrence Moody said he is satisfied that he and 3,550 other people are finally getting justice.

"You just can't do that to people," the Washington County man said after DuPont and its spinoff company Chemours agreed to pay nearly $671 million to Mid-Ohio Valley people affected by a chemical used to make Teflon that causes cancer and a host of other health problems.

The settlement was announced Monday during the trial of Moody's lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbus. Chief Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. sent the jury home without a verdict.

Moody's lawyers argued that DuPont covered up that the chemical C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid, was toxic. The chemical spewed into the air and Ohio River from DuPont's Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg, West Virginia, since the 1950s. The lawyers said the company knew since 1980 that it caused cancer in rats.

"It took away having the option to protect my family, not knowing, 'Should you drink the water or not?' " said Moody, 57, who has testicular cancer.

A study found that, in general, area residents who drank water from wells near the plant had a median level of 38 parts per billion of C8 in their blood — 7.6 times more than the average American. In 2012, a science panel concluded a "probable link" existed between C8 and six diseases: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, pregnancy-induced hypertension and high cholesterol.

The 200 or so plaintiffs with cancer are expected to receive at least $1 million. At the lower end, those with high cholesterol could receive awards in the five figures.

"This agreement provides a sound resolution for area residents, Chemours, and the public," said David C. Shelton, general counsel for Chemours. "It settles all indemnification obligations between Chemours and DuPont for all of the approximately 3,500 claims in the Ohio multi-district litigation and allows us to move forward with a renewed focus on our customers, product innovation and application development."

DuPont spun off Chemours last year to take over the production of Teflon and other "performance chemicals" products at the Washington Works plant. Defense attorneys said it was an attempt to load its lawsuit debt on Chemours and erase its own liability.

Observers said a planned merger with Dow Chemical — as well as the increasing jury awards in C8 cases — motivated DuPont to step up settlement talks.

Also, Sargus had recruited other federal judges to begin tackling the more expensive cancer cases in May at the rate of 40 over 10 months each year.

DuPont lost the previous three suits tried in Columbus. The last jury said the chemical giant owed $2 million in general damages and, in January, $10.5 million in punitive damages to another Ohio man with testicular cancer.

DuPont has argued that it reacted to the problem using the best science of the time, and spent $594 million to address the problem.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs countered that the company has a "staggering" $18.8 billion that can be converted to cash, including $4.5 billion in cash and other sources. The $2 million it paid a claimant in general damages, the company makes in 42 minutes, they said.

Prosecutors in the Netherlands have begun a criminal investigation into possible C8 contamination from a DuPont plant there.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch Feb 13 2017
See also: Jury awards $10.5 million in punitive damages in DuPont cancer case

By Earl Rinehart
The Columbus Dispatch • Thursday January 5, 2017 6:35 PM

Craig Holman | Dispatch file photo
DuPont's Washington Works chemical plant on the Ohio River

Jurors who awarded an Ohio man $10.5 million in punitive damages Thursday apparently heeded his attorney’s call to punish DuPont for causing his cancer, and to send a message to corporate America.

"It's important to punish, to end this corrupt corporate mentality," attorney Gary J. Douglas urged the jury in U.S. District Court in Columbus.

The amount was the largest awarded of three DuPont cancer cases tried so far in Columbus.

After the verdict, Douglas said of DuPont, "One would hope, depending on how callous they are, with compensatory damages of seven figures and punitive in eight figures, when they're looking at 3,000 cases, they would do the right thing."

That, he said, would be a mass, "global" settlement with the plaintiffs.

The same jury awarded the plaintiff, Kenneth Vigneron, 56, a truck driver from Washington County, $2 million in compensatory damages last month.

Vigneron said his drinking water was tainted by C8, a chemical used to make Teflon, from smokestack emissions at DuPont's Washington Works plant. The particles settled on the Little Hocking Water Association well fields, eventually contaminating the water supply.

The plant is along the Ohio River in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Jurors also had found that DuPont acted maliciously because it knew in the 1960s that C8, or perfluorooctanoic acid, was toxic and a cancer risk, but said nothing publicly until forced to by lawsuits and regulators.

The jury returned to court on Wednesday to hear both sides argue how much to give Vigneron, who suffered from testicular cancer. His attorneys didn't ask for a specific number; a DuPont attorney asked for "zero," saying the company already has paid enough for its "mistake."

Douglas told jurors DuPont has a "staggering" $18.8 billion that can be converted to cash, including $4.5 billion in cash and other sources. A plaintiff witness, forensic economist Robert Johnson of California, said the company has net sales of $68 million a day.

“That $2 million in (compensatory) damages, they make in 42 minutes,” Douglas said.

Johnson said he studied DuPont’s corporate financial statements and documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He said a single award of $100 million would allow DuPont stockholders to still receive a dividend and "no one has to lose his job."

Financial observers have said DuPont is concerned about how one large punitive damage award affects the thousands of remaining suits it faces.

Of the two previous trials in Columbus, one jury awarded a woman with kidney cancer $1.6 million in compensatory damages, but said she was not eligible for punitive damages. The other jury awarded a man with testicular cancer $5.1 million in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.

U.S. Chief District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. heard the three C8 cases and will preside at the next one, which also involves testicular cancer, beginning Jan. 17. In May, several federal judges will hear C8 cases in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. The goal is to hear 270 cancer cases at the rate of 40 cases over 10 months every year.

DuPont attorney Craig Woods told jurors the company regrets what happened, but that "DuPont has paid for their mistake. It doesn't deserve to be punished on top of that."

The company said it spent $594 million to clean up C8 problems. That included $70 million for a community health study in 2005, $20 million to build state-of-the-art water filtration systems at all six public water districts affected, and millions for a science panel that in 2012 said there was a probable link between the chemical and several types of cancer.

"This money was committed for doing the right thing," DuPont attorney John Gall told the jury of three women and three men.

DuPont is expected to appeal the verdict.

C8 no longer is used to make Teflon, a product that now belongs to a DuPont spinoff called Chemours Company. Chemours issued a statement after Thursday's verdict: "In the event DuPont claims it is entitled to indemnification from Chemours as to some or all of the judgment, Chemours retains its defenses to such claims.”

Chemours stock closed Thursday down 33 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $21.88. DuPont stock fell 36 cents, or .50 percent, at $73.81.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Jan 5 2017