Jury Awards $46.75 Million Over Nitric Acid Plant Gas Release; Eighth Circuit Affirms Compensatory Damages, Strikes Punitives

In 2022, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Missouri returned a $46.75 million verdict against explosives maker Dyno Nobel for a toxic gas release that ended Teddy Scott's working life. The award did not survive appeal intact. In July 2024 the Eighth Circuit affirmed Dyno's liability and the full $16.75 million in compensatory damages but reversed the $30 million punitive portion, holding that the trial evidence did not meet Missouri's strict standard for punishing a defendant in a negligence case.

The case began on the morning of March 20, 2015. Dyno Nobel's nitric acid plant in Louisiana, Missouri converts ammonia into nitrogen oxides, gases the EPA lists as extremely hazardous, and vents unconverted gas through a 108-foot stack. Startups after maintenance push emissions well above normal concentrations, so the company typically ran them in the early morning, before people arrived at neighboring facilities. That day a 3:30 a.m. startup failed when equipment broke down. After repairs, Dyno restarted the plant after 8:00 a.m., during working hours at the Calumet synthetic lubricants plant next door.

Scott was working as a general foreman on a Calumet expansion project a few hundred feet from the stack. Around 8:20 a.m. his crew spotted a reddish brown cloud pouring from Dyno's property. Scott ordered an evacuation, but a shift in the wind pushed the cloud over the site and enveloped him. His throat and nose burned instantly. He became disoriented and later lost consciousness, injuring his back in the fall. Hospital staff put him through decontamination showers. He was left with irritable larynx syndrome, a condition that triggers recurring laryngeal spasms, along with chronic headaches. He has not worked since the day of the release.

SL Chapman's Bradley Lakin and Robert Schmieder filed suit for Scott and his wife Melanie in 2016. The district court threw the case out on summary judgment, ruling that Dyno owed Scott no duty of care because no one had ever been hurt by a startup emission before. The Eighth Circuit reversed in 2020, holding that under Missouri law foreseeability was a question for the jury when the circumstances allow varying inferences.

On remand the case went through a ten-day trial. Jurors heard from dueling experts, Dyno employees, Calumet workers, and members of Scott's crew, then found for the Scotts on every question: $13.75 million in compensatory damages for Teddy, $3 million for Melanie's loss of consortium, and $30 million in punitive damages. The district court denied Dyno's post-trial motions in full.

Dyno appealed again. In Scott v. Dyno Nobel, Inc., 108 F.4th 615 (8th Cir. 2024), the court rejected every attack on the liability verdict, upholding the foreseeability finding, the causation evidence, the jury instructions, and the exclusion of Dyno's evidence about incident-free prior startups. Punitive damages came out differently. Missouri law requires clear and convincing proof of complete indifference or conscious disregard for the safety of others, and the panel concluded the record fell short, calling the question close but pointing to the absence of prior incidents and the fact that the emissions violated no permit or regulation. The court remanded for an amended judgment omitting the $30 million, leaving the Scotts with the affirmed $16.75 million in compensatory damages.