A $363 million jury verdict obtained by Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard has been ranked the 1st overall verdict in ALM’s Top 10 Verdicts in Illinois in 2022. The list is comprised of various case types that were tried either in state or federal courts of Illinois.
Attorneys Patrick A. Salvi II, Lance D. Northcutt, and Jennifer M. Cascio obtained the $363,000,000 jury verdict in Cook County in September of 2022 on behalf of a Willowbrook woman who was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer after living about one-third of a mile from medical device sterilization plant Sterigenics for more than three decades.
Federal officials began investigating Sterigenics in 2018 after the community surrounding the Willowbrook plant was identified on a national map of health hazards from breathing toxic chemicals. Data reported by the company to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed the Willowbrook census tract was in the 99.9th percentile for cancer risk in the country.
Plaintiff Sue Kamuda, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, was the first plaintiff to see trial. She is currently in remission.
During the trial, which opened on August 18, 2022, Mrs. Kamuda’s attorneys argued Sterigenics knew the risks of using ethylene oxide (EtO) to sterilize medical equipment yet continued to utilize “excessive and unnecessary” amounts of the colorless, odorless carcinogen for decades without warning the community. Plaintiff’s attorneys also utilized company emails and other documents to demonstrate that Sterigenics executives and former parent company Griffith Foods knew since the early 1980s that EtO exposure posed significant health risks to humans, but the company pushed back on studies and regulatory efforts to maintain profitability.
After a more than 1-month trial, a Cook County jury returned their verdict on September 19, awarding Mrs. Kamuda a total of $363 million – including $38 million in compensatory damages and $325 million in punitive damages. The verdict is the highest jury verdict on record for an individual plaintiff in Illinois.
Original source can be found here.