First Shotgun-Shell Asbestos Verdict in History: $9 Million for Illinois Farmer Who Died of Mesothelioma
After trial: ON APPEAL. Do not read this as final. The jury returned $9,000,000 on 23 July 2025 in the Delaware Superior Court, New Castle County asbestos docket, C.A. No. N23C-09-059 ASB before Judge Sean P. Lugg, after a trial running 8 to 23 July; the special verdict form was signed by the foreperson at 4:33 p.m. Judgment was entered 1 August 2025 and an amended final order of judgment followed on 24 March 2026, with prejudgment interest running from the August 2022 filing date, so the total judgment exceeds the face verdict. The defendants then filed a notice of appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court in March 2026, appealing the amended final judgment, the 27 February 2026 post-trial order, the 1 August 2025 entry of judgment, the 23 July 2025 special verdict and the 26 February 2025 Daubert ruling, and posted a supersedeas bond received in the Prothonotary's office on 14 April 2026. A supersedeas bond stays execution, which means no money moves while the appeal is pending. On scope, the docket caption is Gloria Whalen v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours because Delaware's asbestos practice files multiple plaintiffs under one civil action number and severs them for trial; the Schoepke claim was tried alone, for one decedent. Delaware caps nothing: there is no cap on compensatory or punitive damages and no medical-malpractice cap, so the figure turns on the appeal alone.
Won by Jacobs & Crumplar.
A Delaware jury returned a unanimous $9 million verdict on July 23, 2025, in the first case ever tried over asbestos-contaminated shotgun shells, holding DuPont and Remington's successor liable for the mesothelioma death of Eugene Schoepke, an 84-year-old Illinois farmer and lifelong hunter.
What happened
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.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.WSIU Public Broadcasting / IPM Newsroom (Charlie Schlenker, staffed senior reporter) -- names David Barrett and Devitt Cooney; $9M verdict July 23, 2025
- 2.IPM Newsroom (Charlie Schlenker, investigative journalism syndicate) -- same staffed article, names David Barrett and Devitt Cooney; exposure and case significance details
- 3.Asbestos.com news (Travis Rodgers, Emmy-nominated journalist, staffed editorial) -- $9M verdict against DuPont/Remington; first shotgun-shell asbestos verdict; 60/40 fault split
- 4.Mesothelioma.net (Terri Heimann Oppenheimer, staffed editorial) -- Delaware Superior Court affirms $9M award, Judge Lugg rejects post-trial motions, interest awarded, March 2026
- 5.Delaware Superior Court trial worksheet in C.A. No. N23C-09-059 ASB, docketed 25 July 2025: 'PLAINTIFFS' COUNSEL: DAVID O. BARRETT, ESQ., THOMAS CRUMPLER, ESQ., AND J. DEVITT COONEY, ESQ. ... THE JURY FOUND IN FAVOR OF THE PLAINTIFFS'. DAMAGES AMOUNT TOTALED $9 MILLION.' The docket also records the March 2026 notice of appeal and the supersedeas bond received 14 April 2026
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