Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Exxon Defeats Gasoline Cancer Claim As Oil Companies Fend Off Sprawling ‘Lawfare’ Push

Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour

A Philadelphia jury rejected claims that ExxonMobil gasoline was defectively designed and caused a man’s leukemia, marking a win for the oil industry as it fights high-stakes court cases.

Jurors ruled Oct. 13 that ExxonMobil’s benzene-containing gasoline was not defectively designed in a lawsuit brought by Leon and Ruth Mazza, according to the Pennsylvania Record. Although jurors found the gasoline lacked adequate warnings about benzene exposure, they also rejected allegations that ExxonMobil intentionally concealed the chemical’s dangers.

“The verdict in the Mazza case shows that juries still rule on facts rather than emotions when a ‘big oil’ defendant makes its case,” energy analyst David Blackmon told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Mazzas filed their lawsuit in July 2023 against ExxonMobil and several other companies, including Shell, Chevron, BP and U.S. Steel, according to the Pennsylvania Record. Leon Mazza alleged that exposure to benzene-containing products while working at an Exxon station, an auto body shop and landscaping businesses, as well as participating in drag racing, contributed to his leukemia diagnosis in 2022.

“The claims against Exxon were specious on their face,” Blackmon said. “There is no valid science supporting such a claim and the jury figured it out despite the best efforts of plaintiff lawyers to cloud the facts.”

ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Benzene is a known human carcinogen linked to leukemia, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, the health effects of chemical exposure depend on factors including the amount and duration of exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The verdict follows another high-profile Philadelphia gasoline lawsuit involving ExxonMobil, although the two cases produced sharply different outcomes.

A jury awarded Paul Gill $725 million and his wife, Diane, $500,000 in May 2024 after finding that Mobil Oil, ExxonMobil’s predecessor, negligently sold defective gasoline containing benzene. The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the $725.5 million verdict Oct. 15, 2026, according to the court’s opinion.

“The ruling to confirm a huge award for plaintiffs in a separate case was based on procedural grounds but not the facts of the case, leaving it open to further appeals,” Blackmon said.

ExxonMobil’s appeal faltered partly because the company failed to raise key arguments before the trial court, according to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

“Exxon failed to preserve most of its arguments regarding sufficient proof of causation, and that waiver renders its only preserved argument moot,” Judge Deborah Kunselman wrote.

The Philadelphia-based Locks Law Firm, which represented the plaintiffs in both the Mazza and Gill lawsuits, also filed a class-action lawsuit alongside Berger Montague in July over an alleged 378,000-gallon gasoline leak at a Pennsylvania storage facility. The lawsuit accuses Monroe Energy and its subsidiary of contaminating surrounding properties and groundwater with gasoline containing benzene and other potentially hazardous substances.

The cases are unfolding alongside separate legal challenges targeting major oil companies over their fossil fuel products and environmental claims.

A New York appeals court rejected New York City’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Shell and BP earlier in October. The city accused the companies of misleading consumers about the environmental benefits of their products, but the court upheld the lawsuit’s dismissal.

ExxonMobil is also fighting a separate climate lawsuit involving Colorado localities and Suncor Energy. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Oct. 5 over whether state-law claims can proceed against energy companies for alleged climate-related harms.

ExxonMobil also remains a defendant in a Washington wrongful death lawsuit alleging fossil fuel producers contributed to the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave that killed Juliana Leon. ExxonMobil and other defendants argued that the claims were barred by federal law and sought to dismiss the lawsuit, but a Washington judge rejected their motion in July. The companies subsequently sought appellate review.

BP, Chevron, Shell and other defendants were dismissed from the case in September, leaving ExxonMobil entities and TransMontaigne Partners facing the claims.

“Without the Court stepping in, progressive activists and their trial lawyer allies will continue to advance their woke lawfare campaign across the country,” O.H. Skinner, executive director of Alliance for Consumers, previously told the DCNF regarding the Suncor litigation.