Three manufacturers of dry cleaning chemicals were ordered to pay the city of Modesto $178 million for contaminating its water with suspected carcinogens.
The jury in San Francisco Superior Court found that the companies had acted with malice because they failed to tell dry cleaners how to use the chemicals perchloroethylene or trichloroethylene without harming the environment.
The city of Modesto was awarded over $175 million in punitive damages and $3.2 million in actual damages for groundwater contamination.
Vulcan Materials Co. was ordered to pay $100 million in punitive damages, Dow Chemical Co. was ordered to pay $75 million and RR Street & Co. Inc. to pay $75,000. Two dry-cleaning businesses that were named in the lawsuit do not have to pay damages as they did not know about the contamination risk.
Leave a comment