holding that trial court’s awards of $1,500 to $3,500 to plaintiffs exposed to a chemical leak were a clear abuse of discretion given that the "damages proven, such as eye, nose, and throat irritations, are not unlike the symptoms suffered by persons afflicted with common seasonal allergies ... [and] might be characterized as mere annoyances”; reducing damages to $100 to $500
How later courts described this case
- holding that trial court’s awards of $1,500 to $3,500 to plaintiffs exposed to a chemical leak were a clear abuse of discretion given that the "damages proven, such as eye, nose, and throat irritations, are not unlike the symptoms suffered by persons afflicted with common seasonal allergies ... [and] might be characterized as mere annoyances”; reducing damages to $100 to $500
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
VICTORY, J.,
concurring.
|,I agree with the majority’s reduction of the amount of damages awarded by the trial court. However, I disagree with the trial court’s method of awarding damages globally based on the location of each plaintiff to the release site. Damages should have been based upon testimony as to an individual’s actual damages, not on *1258 expert testimony that it was “reasonable” to assume someone closer to the source would suffer more damage than someone farther away. However, because defendant states in brief that it “does not dispute the trial court’s methodology for fixing the claimants’ damages based on their proximity to the Carbide plant,” I concur in the majority opinion.