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Court Orders New Trial In Gasoline Leak Verdict

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Maryland's Court of Special Appeals has ordered a new trial on one count of a judgment against ExxonMobil Corp. to families whose wells were contaminated during a 2006 gasoline spill.

The Daily Record of Baltimore reports that the court, in a ruling on Thursday, found that the jury instruction on emotional distress damages was faulty. The judges also struck down the medical monitoring awards.

An underground storage tank bled about 26,000 gallons of gasoline over 37 days in Jacksonville, a community about 20 miles north of Baltimore. Eighty-eight plaintiff households were awarded more than $71 million in noneconomic damages by a jury in 2009.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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