Facts

Residents of Merced's Beachwood subdivision filed suit against Amsted Industries Inc., Merck & Co., Baltimore Aircoil Co., and others alleging that defendants contaminated the air, drinking water, surface water, and flood water when a canal breached during a storm vent in 2006 flooded the neighborhood, a Central California subdivision, potentially exposing thousands of residents to cancer-causing chemicals. Meadowbrook Water Co. is a family owned water company regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission ("PUC") that provides drinking water to some of the plaintiffs.

Baltimore Aircoil Co. was a former subsidiary of Merck and since 1985 has been a subsidiary of Amsted. A subsidiary of Baltimore Aircoil Co., BAC-Pritchard, Inc., which is a dissolved corporation, no longer in existence and is not a defendant, operated a plant in the area from 1975 to 1993 that manufactured cooling towers and used a solution containing hexavalent chromium to pressure treat wood. Defendants denied that they owned or operated the plant, and denied that chemicals released from the plant traveled off-site to locations where the plaintiffs could have been exposed.

In the trial of the first phase of the case, the jury was asked to determine whether contaminants from the plant reached locations where plaintiffs could have been exposed to them at concentrations that exceed applicable regulatory standards or were hazardous to human health.

Result

In favor of plaintiffs, the jury found that plaintiffs could have been exposed to hexavalent chromium at concentrations exceeding regulatory standards or levels hazardous to human health in air between 1969 and 1994, and in surface water in an adjacent irrigation canal. However, the jury found that plaintiffs could not have been exposed to contamination in groundwater or drinking water, resulting in a defense verdict on those pathways for all defendants. Merck, Amsted and Baltimore Aircoil have filed post-trial motions, including a motion for partial new trial. Subsequent phases will determine whether any plaintiffs were actually exposed to hexavalent chromium, and if so, what damages will be awarded. No further jury trial has yet been scheduled.