Following a year of continuances, a Wood River woman’s 2012 benzene lawsuit is up for case management on May 25 in Madison County Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth’s court.
Janice K. Kalert sued Shell Oil Company, BP Products and Conoco Phillips claiming their refineries allowed thousands of pounds of benzene and benzene-containing pollutants to be released into the air and ground water of the refinery's adjoining neighborhoods. She claims that as a result of her exposure, she was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in March 2011.
Conoco Phillips, represented by Gregg Kinney and Larry Hepler of HeplerBroom in Edwardsville, is the sole defendant remaining in the case.
Case management conferences have been continued four times since Conoco Phillips requested a trial by jury last year on May 26.
Shell Oil, represented by attorneys from Fox Galvin in St. Louis, settled and was dismissed from the case in June 2014.
BP, represented by attorneys from Husch Blackwell in St. Louis, settled and was dismissed from the case in May 2013.
Kalert is represented by attorney Thomas Schwartz of St. Louis.
Madison County Circuit Court Case No. 12-L-45