Benzene exposure lawsuit dismissed

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Shell Oil has won a lawsuit that alleged a man died after years of working at a gas station and being exposed to benzene.

The case, Burst, et al v. Shell Oil Co., was dismissed in U.S. District Court Monday morning in New Orleans.

It was set for trial beginning next week before Senior District Judge Sarah Vance. The lawsuit involved the alleged claims of a widow, Yolande Burst, who said her husband’s exposure to benzene in gasoline while working at gas stations from 1958 to 1971 caused his acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML.

“In 2013, some 40 years later, physicians diagnosed Mr. Burst, at the age of 71, with (AML), a disease that claimed his life the same year,” the summary judgment reads.

Defendants were Shell and Chevron for Texaco and Gulf, both of which are now owned by Chevron.

Vance dismissed the case through a summary judgment order following the court’s ruling earlier this month throwing out the plaintiff’s expert on causation. The court deemed the physician’s opinion as “unreliable,” the summary judgment reads. Vance dismissed the case because the plaintiff could not prove causation with the expert’s testimony inadmissible.

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