Liliane worked for SAS Secobra Recherches from 1986 to 2000 and developed breast cancer. She provided a first medical certificate in 2000 which stated "Breast cancer in a woman occupationally exposed to pesticides including organo-chlorines. Recent studies suggest a causal relationship between exposure to organochlorines and breast cancer (bibliographic documents given to the patient).
By judgment of March 8, 2012, the Court of Appeal ordered a medical expertise measure in order to provide all elements to determine whether the exposure to the treatment products handled and more specifically the organochlorine pesticides could have a direct and certain causal link with the pathology she suffered.
By a decision of December 4, 2014, the Court of Appeal then considered that, given the current state of the studies that have been conducted and some of which are mentioned by the two experts, it appears that the causal link between exposure to pesticides and in particular to DDT, which is not disputable as far as Liliane is concerned, and some diseases cannot be established with certainty, even if there are, it is true, suspicions of such a link.
Under these conditions, the Court found that Secobra Recherches had not committed an inexcusable fault that would have caused the breast cancer suffered by Liliane X.