A $70 million verdict for a retired Georgia truck driver who developed cancer after decades around a medical-sterilization plant has survived the company's attempt to throw it out entirely. The Georgia Court of Appeals rejected a request by Becton, Dickinson and Company and its predecessor C.R. Bard to overturn the verdict and retry the whole case, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported — but a limited retrial on one question could still cut the award sharply.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution via CDLLife
The driver, Gary Walker, worked as a truck driver between 1970 and 1999, transporting sterilized medical products in and around Covington, Georgia, several days a week. He also lived within two miles of the same facility between 1991 and 2017. In 2017, at 75 years old by the time of his trial, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The plant, the chemical and the lawsuit
The Covington facility uses ethylene oxide, a gas used to sterilize medical equipment. Walker's suit alleges that Bard did not begin controlling emissions from the plant until 1990, despite opening in 1967 — and that the company had reportedly received a warning from the chemical's manufacturer in 1980 linking exposure to the chemical to cancer. Those claims are allegations from the lawsuit and trial reporting; the company denies wrongdoing.
At Walker's trial, six other people who lived near the plant and were subsequently diagnosed with cancer also testified. A jury found Bard liable for negligence and for creating a public nuisance, and awarded Walker $70 million — $20 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages.
The $20 million compensatory award stands whatever happens next. The $50 million punitive award depends on a new jury finding the company acted with specific intent to cause harm — without that finding, Georgia law caps it at $250,000, and the total falls to $20.25 million.
What the appeals court actually decided
BD and Bard asked the appeals court to overturn the verdict and order a completely new trial. The court refused. Instead, it ordered only a limited retrial on a single question: whether the company acted with specific intent to cause harm, the finding Georgia law requires before uncapped punitive damages can stand.
Source: The Cooldown / AJC
That means Walker's core victory — liability for negligence and public nuisance, and the $20 million compensatory award — is intact regardless of the retrial's outcome. What the new jury decides will move the total between $20.25 million and the full $70 million.
Why truckers and plant neighbours are watching
Walker's exposure story is a trucking story as much as a neighbourhood one: for nearly three decades his job put him at the plant repeatedly, loading and hauling the sterilized products the facility produced, on top of living within two miles of it for 26 years. Cases like his are watched closely by drivers and warehouse workers whose routes and depots sit beside industrial sites.
The Covington plant has been a focus of community concern for years because of its ethylene oxide emissions, and Walker's verdict is among the largest won by an individual who lived and worked near it. The appeals ruling keeps that verdict alive while narrowing the fight to the intent question.
What happens next
The limited retrial will be held before a new jury on the specific-intent question alone. The companies have said they plan to pursue further appeals, potentially seeking review by the Georgia Supreme Court, according to reporting on the ruling. No retrial date has been announced.