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California Jury Awards Asbestos Worker $3.4 Million
By asbestoshub | August 10, 2009
It only took a day for a San Francisco jury to find a Canadian company liable for exposing a deceased former Johns-Manville Transite plant worker to asbestos.
Richard Worthley Sr., worked in the plant in Waukegan, Ill. from May 1968 to 1984, when it closed. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2004.
The defendant in the case, Advocate Mines of Newfoundland, Canada, argued that it had stopped supplying asbestos to the plant a year prior to Worthley’s employment there there, and denied liability.
In addition to being exposed to asbestos by working in the contaminated plant, one of Worthley’s jobs was to clean and repair manufacturing and dust-collection equipment in the factory, such as ventilators.
To issues during the six-week trial were whether Worthley was exposed to asbestos dust at the plant and whether the asbestos from Advocate Mines caused his mesothelioma.
On July 22, 2009, the 12 jurors unanimously decided that Advocate Mines was liable for negligence, defective design and failure to warn, and awarded $877,750 in economic damages and $2.5 million in non-economic damages.
Advocate Mines was held liable only for 5 percent of Worthley’s non-economic damages. Though the jury didn’t find anyone liable for the other 95 percent, many other defendants already settled in the case prior to trial.
Watch it on Asbestos News Minute.
Topics: Claims, Law, Lawsuits |
