## Facts

- Private well owners and local businesses in Fort Montgomery, New York alleged their drinking-water wells were contaminated with methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) released from nearby gasoline stations owned or supplied by Sunoco and ExxonMobil.
- MTBE is a gasoline additive that is highly soluble and mobile in groundwater, increasing the likelihood of groundwater contamination compared to other gasoline components.
- Testing around 2000 reportedly found MTBE in nearly 50 private residential wells near two implicated stations.
- Plaintiffs used well water for household purposes and alleged exposure created a risk of serious future disease, particularly cancer.
- Plaintiffs claimed emotional distress from fear of future illness and reported stress-related symptoms (e.g., migraines, anxiety, insomnia, and immune-system-related complaints).
- Plaintiffs also offered expert proof asserting subclinical cellular or subcellular damage from MTBE exposure despite the absence of a clinically diagnosed disease.

## Issues

1. Whether, under New York law, plaintiffs exposed to MTBE who fear future disease but lack a present diagnosable illness can recover for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED).
2. Whether physical symptoms that reflect emotional distress (e.g., headaches, insomnia, anxiety) satisfy New York’s “physical injury” requirement for toxic-exposure NIED claims.
3. Whether expert testimony of subcellular or DNA-level changes, without clinically manifest disease, constitutes a present “physical injury” sufficient to support NIED.

## Decision

- The court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs’ NIED claims.
- The court held that fear of developing cancer or other future illness from MTBE exposure is not compensable in NIED absent a present, legally cognizable physical injury.
- The court ruled that plaintiffs’ stress-related symptoms were physical manifestations of emotional distress, not independent physical injuries satisfying New York’s requirement.
- The court rejected subcellular-damage evidence as insufficient to constitute the kind of present physical injury New York requires for toxic-exposure emotional-distress recovery.
- The NIED claims were dismissed; other non-NIED claims in the broader litigation were not resolved by this ruling.

## Legal Principles

- Under New York law, fear of future illness from toxic exposure, standing alone, is not compensable as negligent infliction of emotional distress.
- In toxic-exposure NIED cases, New York generally requires a present, clinically manifest physical injury or disease attributable to the exposure.
- Physical symptoms that merely reflect emotional distress do not convert a barred fear-of-disease claim into a compensable physical-injury claim.
- Subclinical cellular or genetic changes, absent clinically evident disease, do not qualify as “physical injury” for New York toxic-exposure NIED claims, in part to avoid open-ended liability for asymptomatic exposures.

## Conclusion

The court applied New York limits on toxic-exposure emotional-distress claims and dismissed NIED claims where plaintiffs alleged MTBE exposure and fear of future disease but lacked present, clinically diagnosable injury; stress-related symptoms and alleged subcellular damage were legally insufficient to establish the required physical injury.


In re Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) Prods. Liab. Litig., 528 F. Supp. 2d 303 (S.D.N.Y. 2007)