Abbott v. E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Co.

From the 1950s through 2006, E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) (defendant) contaminated drinking-water supplies in Ohio and West Virginia by releasing a chemical known as C-8 into the public water system. Travis Abbott (plaintiff), a member of a certified class, brought suit against DuPont, alleging that exposure to C-8 caused him to develop testicular cancer, ultimately resulting in the removal of both his testicles. Travis’s wife, Julie Abbott (plaintiff), also brought a derivative claim for loss of consortium. A jury delivered verdicts in favor of the Abbotts, awarding $40 million in damages to Travis and $10 million to Julie. DuPont filed a posttrial motion requesting that the court apply the Ohio Tort Reform Act’s damages cap to Julie’s loss-of-consortium award. The act, effective April 2005, capped the recoverable noneconomic damages in tort actions at $250,000. DuPont asserted that the triggering event for Julie’s claim was Travis’s cancer diagnosis and resulting infertility, which occurred after the couple’s marriage in 2013, eight years after the act’s effective date. In response, Julie contended that the act did not apply because DuPont’s tortious conduct and Travis’s injury-inducing exposure occurred before the act took effect. Alternatively, Julie argued that even if the act applied, its exemption for catastrophic injuries removed the cap on her award.