DENVER - A federal jury Tuesday awarded $554 million in damages to 12,000 Denver property owners near a former nuclear bomb plant who said their land had been contaminated by plutonium.
Attorneys for the property owners said, however, the damages will have to be reduced to $353 million because the amount set by jurors is more than that allowed by law.
The plaintiffs, mainly homeowners, contended during a four- month trial that the value of their property had slumped because of faulty operation of the now-defunct Rocky Flats bomb plant in suburban Denver. The plant made triggers for nuclear bombs during and after the Cold War.
David Bernick, an attorney for the defendants, Rockwell International Corp, a unit of Rockwell Automation Inc and Dow Chemical Co, said the federal government was responsible for paying the damages. The companies operated the plant at different times for the US Department of Energy.
Bernick said the government would decide whether to appeal the verdict.
The jury awarded compensatory damages due to nuisance and for "trespass" of highly dangerous plutonium on land occupied by homes near the plant. They also awarded punitive damages.
Jurors deliberated for 17 days in the trial which began Oct. 3 in US District Court.
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