C.R. Bard loses bid for full retrial of $70 million verdict won by Covington truck driver with cancer

The appeals court on Nov. 3 upheld a Gwinnett County State Court judge's order for a limited retrial and turned down the companies' request to throw out the verdict and try the whole case again, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Judge Sara Doyle wrote that the companies offered no convincing reason why the question of intent could not be tried on its own.

Walker drove a truck in the Covington area from 1970 to 1999, hauling sterilized medical products from the plant several times a week, and lived within two miles of it from 1991 to 2017, according to case records cited by the AJC. Doctors found non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2017. His suit claimed that Bard, which started the plant in 1967, did not control ethylene oxide emissions until 1990, although its supplier, Union Carbide, warned in 1980 that exposure was linked to cancer. In May 2025 a jury found the companies liable for negligence and public nuisance.

The new trial covers one question: whether the companies specifically intended to cause harm. Eleven jurors in the first trial said yes and one said no, which led to a partial mistrial. Without that finding, Georgia law limits punitive damages in such a case to $250,000. If the new jury sides with the companies, Walker's total drops to $20.25 million, the AJC reported. If it sides with him, he can collect all $70 million. No retrial date has been reported.

BD and Bard deny wrongdoing and say the plant has followed state and federal rules. A company representative told the AJC they will keep appealing, possibly to the Georgia Supreme Court. More than 400 lawsuits over the Covington plant have been filed against the companies.