W.Va. jury orders DuPont to pay $55.5M |
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Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:03
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CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - DuPont Co. should pay about $55.5 million for property cleanup claims arising from an industrial waste site, a Harrison County jury decided Monday.The decision came in the third phase of a trial in a class-action suit filed by 10 residents of Spelter. The jury reached its decision after deliberating for about seven hours over two days.The lawsuit accuses DuPont of deliberately dumping dangerous heavy metals on an industrial site in the heart of the Harrison County community.'Because the trial is still in process, there's little we can say at this point, except that we will continue to present evidence in this case,' DuPont spokesman Tim Ireland said.Spelter residents won the first phase of their case Oct. 1, when jurors found DuPont liable for and negligent in creating the waste site. The 11-member jury also found that Delaware-based DuPont created a public and private nuisance and that its pollution trespassed onto private property.In a second phase of the lawsuit, the jury required DuPont to provide medical monitoring for 40 years for about 7,000 people who were exposed to arsenic, cadmium and lead contamination from the former smelter site.DuPont has already set aside $15 million to deal with the lawsuit.The final phase, which will address whether DuPont's conduct merits punitive damages, is scheduled to begin Tuesday morning.Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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DuPont says will not face charges after justice department inquiry ends 