June v. Union Carbide Corp.

The lawsuit before us arises out of alleged radiation injuries to residents of Uravan, Colorado, a former uranium and vanadium milling town owned and operated by Defendants Union Carbide Corporation and Umetco Minerals Corporation. Plaintiffs brought an action in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado under the Price-Anderson Act of 1957, Pub. L. No. 86-256, 71 Stat. 576 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). They assert claims for personal injury based on disease or death allegedly caused by radiation and claims for medical monitoring to detect the onset of disease in those Plaintiffs who were asymptomatic. The district court dismissed all the claims on pretrial motions, and Plaintiffs appealed. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm. Plaintiffs’ personal-injury claims fail for lack of evidence of factual causation. Their medical-monitoring claims fail for lack of evidence of a “bodily injury” as required by the Price-Anderson Act.

I. BACKGROUND