Category: Significant Verdicts

On April 22, 2016, a district court jury in Arizona found full damages for the wrongful death of George Coulbourn.  Mr. Coulbourn was a retired civilian employee of the U.S. Navy who was allegedly exposed to asbestos, developing mesothelioma, while working as a shipyard machinist in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia from 1959–66. His duties of repairing and maintaining equipment on naval ships included regular removal of asbestos-containing packing and gaskets on defendant manufacturers’ valves.

Ultimately, the jury awarded $17 million in total damages. …

In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, a jury found in favor of the plaintiff Doris Busbey for an award of $1.7M. The case arose out of asbestos litigation against ESAB Group/Alloy Rod and Air Liquid, but Air Liquid was dismissed from the case.

In the jury’s verdict, they found ESAB Group/Alley Rods negligent and that this negligence was a factual cause of harm to the plaintiff. They further found that the plaintiff Busbey was not comparatively negligent and that no product manufactured …

In this case, the plaintiff alleged that the decedent, William Robinson, died from pleural mesothelioma as a result of his asbestos exposure while working at Allied Chemical from 1968 to 1998.  Defendant Flowserve Corporation, f/k/a The Duriron Company, which manufactured Duriron/Durco pumps and valves, was represented by Chris Massenburg and Max Swetman of Manion Gaynor & Manning LLP and local counsel Jeff Meyer of Murane & Bostwick.  Following a three week trial, the plaintiff’s counsel sought a $10 million verdict.  However, the jury ruled in …

On November 18, 2015,  a jury in California Superior Court for Alameda County awarded a near $7 million verdict against Union Pacific Railroad in a FELA case following a six week trial. The court had previously determined that $451,265.00 was the amount of economic damages. $6.5 million was awarded by the jury for non-economic loss and pain and suffering.

Read the verdict sheet here.…

In a case of first impression under New Jersey’s Product Liability Act, a Middlesex County, New Jersey jury returned a defense verdict in a mesothelioma case involving a 60-year-old plaintiff who claimed exposure to cosmetic talcum powder products in the 1950s-1970s that were allegedly contaminated with trace amounts of asbestos. The jury found that Shulton, Inc., the supplier of some of the products to which the plaintiff claimed exposure, and Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc., the supplier of some of the raw talc used to …

On October 8, 2015, a South Carolina jury found Texas-based materials company Celanese Corp. liable in a lawsuit brought by the family of a maintenance worker who died of cancer after being exposed to asbestos at one of Celanese’s plants in the 1970s.

After two weeks of trial, the jury unanimously awarded the family of Dennis Seay $12 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages as a result of Celanese’s negligence. John Crane, the second defendant in the case and the maker …

On October 7, 2015, the Alameda County Superior Court in California found in favor of defendant John Crane Inc. in an asbestos exposure lawsuit. The plaintiff, James Harkin, had asserted that his mesothelioma was caused by exposure to asbestos from valve packing manufactured by John Crane Inc. and brought several asbestos-related product liability claims.  He further argued that his mesothelioma additionally occurred as a result of working in the presence of Oscar E. Erickson employees while they disturbed asbestos containing materials at an oil refinery.…