Leonard L. Williams Justice Center
WILMINGTON, Del. – A Delaware court won’t overturn the nation’s first jury verdict blaming shotgun shells for cancer-causing asbestos.
The Delaware Superior Court last month affirmed the $9 million award against DuPont and Remington Arms, finding no error in allowing plaintiff experts to tell jurors of the harms of green-cased shells made decades ago.
Plaintiff lawyers blamed the companies for the death of hunting enthusiast Eugene Schoepke, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in February 2022 and died a month later at the age of 84. The defendants fought the testimony of experts who said asbestos from the shells caused Schoepke’s illness and death and asked the trial judge to realize his error.
“To be sure, the parties disagreed on the methodology used by each to measure airborne asbestos fibers generated by the firing of Defendant’s asbestos-containing shotgun shells,” Judge Sean Lugg wrote.
“Plaintiffs posited that Defendants employed a methodology which underreported extant fibers and structures, while Defendants asserted Plaintiff’s methodology generated results ‘untethered to any medical causation opinion.’
“But each party was afforded the opportunity to advance their respective theory within the bounds of the law and each proffered relevant expert testimony to explain the science behind the testing they performed.”
Asbestos cases usually allege exposure on worksites and Navy ships from products like gaskets, pipes and brakes. Dozens of companies overwhelmed by these claims were forced to put money in trusts for victims through the bankruptcy system, and as the decades of asbestos litigation has passed, plaintiff lawyers have widened their search for solvent companies to take to court.
Among them is Johnson & Johnson, the main defendant in the wave of lawsuits claiming there was asbestos in its talc products like Baby Powder. In 2023, the firm Jacobs & Crumplar filed the Schoepke lawsuit, and it became the first of the relatively few shotgun-shells cases to result in a plaintiff verdict.
Every time a round was fired, lawyers argued, asbestos was released into the air immediately around Schoepke. In July 2025, a jury awarded $9 million, finding DuPont 60% responsible and Remington 40%.
DuPont purchased Remington nearly 100 years ago and sold it in 1993. The green shells at issue were produced from 1960-1982.
Those shells, the defendants said, were used outdoors – a fact that expert testing didn’t take into account. Sure, the shells could release asbestos into the air, but experts failed to show how much would be “actually inhaled” by Schoepke while he was outside, they argued.
It was a similar issue that an appellate court in Illinois had to decide in a case over asbestos-containing tape and caulk. That ruling said experts couldn’t show asbestos from those products was a substantial factor in the plaintiff’s illness, despite the fact that they were capable of releasing asbestos fibers.
The same expert, Dr. Arthur Frank, was used for the shotgun-shells case. Though in Illinois he had not testified that the tape and caulk released “substantial” amounts of asbestos, “Such is not the case here,” Judge Lugg wrote.
“Dr. Frank further based his ‘substantial factor’ opinion on his understanding of the frequency and regularity of Mr. Schoepke’s shooting,” Lugg added.
“To do so, he reviewed the depositions of Mr. Schoepke’s family members and concluded that Mr. Schoepke was an ‘avid hunter.’”
Schoepke hunted at least eight times every year and regularly used shotguns for target shooting. At times, he would fire off more than 25 rounds in a day, and this, Lugg wrote, formed the basis for Frank’s opinion that the shells were a substantial factor.
Should the defendants appeal, they will hope for the Delaware Supreme Court reacts similarly to how it handled another expert-testimony issue. Last year, that court said a Superior Court judge shouldn’t have let experts tell juries that Zantac can turn into cancer-causing NDMA in the stomach, effectively dooming around 75,000 lawsuits.
