First Shotgun-Shell Asbestos Verdict in History: $9 Million for Illinois Farmer Who Died of Mesothelioma

Eugene Schoepke spent decades doing what millions of American hunters do: loading shells, raising his shotgun, and pulling the trigger. He had no reason to believe that routine carried a hidden hazard. What he did not know, and what Remington Arms and DuPont knew or had reason to know, was that the base wads inside Remington shotgun shells manufactured between 1960 and 1982 were composed of roughly 40 percent asbestos fiber. Testing established that firing a single shell released hundreds of thousands of asbestos fibers into the immediate breathing zone of the shooter.

Schoepke, a dairy and cattle farmer from Marshall County, Illinois, fired thousands of those shells across two decades of recreational shooting. He was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma in March 2022, at age 84, and died approximately five weeks later. He was survived by eight children, three of whom still farm the family land, and 25 grandchildren.

Cooney and Conway attorneys David O. Barrett and Devitt Cooney brought the case in Delaware Superior Court, with Thomas Crumplar of Jacobs and Crumplar serving as local counsel. The defendants were Sporting Goods Properties Inc., the successor to Remington Arms, and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, which was the former parent company and had set the shell specifications during the relevant manufacturing period. At its peak, Remington produced approximately 600,000 asbestos-containing shells every day.

On July 23, 2025, the jury returned a 12-0 verdict awarding $9 million in compensatory damages. Jurors declined to add punitive damages. The jury apportioned fault 60 percent to DuPont and 40 percent to Sporting Goods Properties. The defendants moved to set aside the verdict, arguing the causation evidence was insufficient, but Judge Sean P. Lugg rejected those arguments, finding the companies 'should have known' of the dangers even under their own standard. The judge also awarded pre-judgment interest running from the August 2022 filing date, increasing the total judgment beyond the face verdict.

The Delaware Superior Court's post-trial ruling affirming the verdict was reported in March 2026. The case is the first shotgun-shell asbestos matter ever to reach a jury verdict, and roughly 20 similar cases were pending nationally at the time of trial.

Eugene Schoepke's estate was represented at trial by David O. Barrett and J. Devitt Cooney of Cooney and Conway in Chicago, with Thomas C. Crumplar of Jacobs and Crumplar in Wilmington as Delaware counsel. The Superior Court's own trial worksheet names all three.