Aug. 5 (Westlaw Journals) - A jury in California has found a Navy veteran should be awarded $2.4 million in damages after developing mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos products during 10 years of service in ship boiler rooms.
The only remaining defendant at the time of deliberations, John Crane Inc., will be liable for just 5 percent of the damages.
The plaintiffs have settled with or dismissed 20 other parties named in the suit.
Final judgment against John Crane probably will be entered for about $90,000 after settlement credits, according to the company’s attorney Nicole Roberts of Hassard Bonnington LLP.
Plaintiffs William and Teri Mansir do not agree with that figure. Their attorney, David Bricker of Waters,Paul & Kraus, said they are still calculating but they believe judgment will be more than $200,000.
William Mansir alleges he was exposed to asbestos while serving in the Navy from 1961 to 1971.
Mansir’s work included the maintenance and repair of equipment such as boilers, pumps and valves, according to the complaint filed in the San Diego County Superior Court.
The plaintiffs said John Crane made some of the asbestos-containing packing material and gaskets Mansir worked with.
He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2010.
The five-week trial, presided over by Judge Jeffrey B. Barton, included live expert testimony for the plaintiffs from Dr. Carl Andrew Brodkin on occupational medicine; Dr. David Bodkin, Mansir’s treating oncologist; and David Fractor, an economist.
The defendant called toxicologists Dr. David A. Galbraith and Amy Madl, as well as James Delaney, an expert on the Navy.
According to Roberts, Galbraith testified that Mansir may have localized malignant mesothelioma, as opposed to diffuse malignant mesothelioma.
Roberts said the two conditions are closely related but local malignant mesothelioma is less aggressive, curable and not definitively linked to prior asbestos exposure.
John Crane presented evidence that if Mansir actually had diffuse malignant mesothelioma, it was due to exposure to amphibole asbestos fibers, not the chrysotile asbestos fibers associated with the company’s products.
Chrysotile asbestos is “a far less potent form of asbestos, which if it causes mesothelioma does so only in very high doses and when an amphibole form of asbestos is also present,” Roberts said.
After four-and-a-half days of deliberations, the jury found John Crane 5 percent liable for Mansir’s injuries.
The panel found the Navy and insulation companies 57 percent at fault, some manufacturers and suppliers 37 percent at fault, and Mansir himself 1 percent at fault.
The total damages of about $2.4 million include nearly $1.4 million in noneconomic damages and $450,000 for loss of consortium.
Mansir v. John Crane Inc., No. 37-2010-00104112, verdict returned (Cal. Super. Ct., S.D. County July 20, 2011).
(Reporting by Ken Bradley, Westlaw Journal Asbestos)