Jury in California Finds Contamination At Plant Site Did Not Cause Birth Defects

摘要

In a bellwether trial for Chevron U.S.A.Inc.,a California jury Feb.16 found that contaminants from a shuttered California pesticide manufacturing facility did not cause birth defects in three people,Chevron's attorneys said March 4 (Acevedo v.California Spray-Chemical Co.,Cal.Super.Ct-.,No.CV-146344,2/16/07).After a four-week trial,Chevron attorney Lawrence P.Riff said the jury held that while two of the three people suing Chevron in regards to its former ownership of a lead arsenate plant in Watsonville,Calif.,had proved that they were exposed in utero to either lead or arsenic contamination from the plant,neither Ruben Valverde,50,nor Susan Reyes,47,had shown their medical ailments were tied to their exposure.