A Joplin, Missouri ball bearings manufacturer, FAG Bearings, has been ordered to pay nearly $21 million to a 27 year old woman left with permanent disabilities after being exposed to a toxic chemical.
A federal jury in Springfield reached the $20.6 million verdict this week in favor of Jodelle L. Kirk and said FAG Bearings was responsible for exposing the woman to the chemical trichloroethene. The judgment includes $13 million in punitive damages and $7.6 million in actual damages.
The Silver Creek, Missouri woman was diagnosed in 2002 when she was 14 with autoimmune hepatitis and will now need a liver transplant. Her attorneys say she will also have to use chemotherapy drugs.
FAG Bearings said it will appeal and disagreed with the facts and the evidence in the case. During the trial, testimony was offered that Kirk’s mother was exposed to the chemical and was pregnant at the time. It was also presented in court that as a young child, Kirk played in contaminated soil.
The company used the solvent to clean metal parts and a government investigation showed the firm dumped large amounts of the chemical around its property starting in 1971.
