Problems would seem to be mounting for the proposed merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont as a US jury recently awarded $10.5 million in punitive damages against DuPont in a C-8 contamination case.
On the 6th January, 2017, a jury in Columbus, Ohio, awarded plaintiff Kenneth Vigneron $10.5 million in punitive damages for the DuPont’s conscious disregard for the plaintiff’s health. The punitive damages are awarded in addition to the $2 million in compensatory damages awarded by the same jury on December 21, 2016.
Keep Your Promises DuPont advisor Harold Bock said: “DuPont’s decades-long, dangerous history with Teflon is finally starting to stick. As we look to the New Year, with 40 trials coming up in 2017 and pressure on DuPont to negotiate a global settlement, yet another punitive award, this time for Kenneth Vigneron, exponentially drives up the price tag of a settlement”
Not only does the legacy of C-8 represents a substantial, material liability for DuPont which existing Dow shareholders stand to inherit in the event of the merger being approved but, given the forthcoming trials and various investigations of C-8 contamination elsewhere, not least in the Netherlands, any potential investors for the proposed new DowDuPont behemoth must be seriously questioning whether it represents a sound investment.
Read more about both DuPont and Dow’s liabilities which the respective companies seem to be attempting to conceal from investors ahead of their proposed merger: CLICK
