NEWPORT NEWS - The Virginia Supreme Court upheld a $3.4 million jury verdict to the family of a former Newport News shipyard worker who died in 2005 of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer.
The court said Friday it unanimously rejected an appeal by John Crane Inc., the Illinois-based maker of gaskets and other asbestos parts that were handled by shipyard worker Garland F. "Buddy" Jones Jr. in the 1960s.
But the woman who spearheaded the case - Jones' wife of 41 years, Wanda T. Jones - won't see that money. She died of an unrelated cancer just three weeks ago. The couple's three children are the beneficiaries.
In July 2006, a Newport News jury determined that the family deserved $10.4 million in the wrongful death suit filed by Jones against three companies that made equipment with asbestos components.
Aside from John Crane, the defendants were Denver-based Johns Manville Corp., a maker of insulation industrial materials, and Garlock Sealing Technologies of Palmyra, N.Y.
A judge reduced the jury verdict to $10 million, the amount the family initially sought. John Crane, the jury said, was responsible for $3.4 million, with Johns Manville and Garlock Sealing each responsible for $3.3 million. However, Johns Manville and Garlock Sealing settled their cases before the verdict - for far less than the jury-determined amounts, Hatten said.
The $3.4 million award still ranks among the largest verdicts in a Virginia asbestos case, said Bob Hatten, the attorney with Patten, Wornom, Hatten and Diamonstein who handled the case.
Ansley Higginbotham, 29, Jones' daughter who lives in Orange, northeast of Charlottesville, said she and her two brothers are disappointed their mother didn't live to see the court uphold the verdict, but are grateful the "greatest legal minds in Virginia" found the award just. "It's a bittersweet day for our family," Higginbotham said. "It was important to our mother to receive justice in this case. She worked very tirelessly to make it happen, and I'm very proud of her for seeing it through during such a difficult time. She did not allow such a big company to intimidate her."
Because shipbuilding involved the use of asbestos for so many years, Hatten asserted, the Peninsula has one of the nation's highest rates of asbestos-related cancers.
Jones worked at Newport News Shipbuilding between 1963 and 1967, later becoming a computer programmer near Richmond. But he had enough exposure to asbestos fibers in those years to spur mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the lungs, some decades later.
Jones was diagnosed with that cancer in January 2005 - 38 years after he last worked at the yard - and died within six months at age 60. He initiated the lawsuit in Newport News Circuit Court before he died.
Higginbotham testified that her father's death in a nursing home was an "absolute nightmare."
"It was intractable pain, pain that is not eliminated with any type of narcotics, and it's constant," Hatten said.
Jones' three children will share two thirds of the $3.4 million verdict against John Crane, or $2.27 million. Because the family had spent $100,000 for expert testimony at the trial, their effective award is $2.17 million.
The lawyers on the case, Patten Wornom, Hatten and Diamonstein, and the Colorado firm of Trine & Metcalf, will share the remaining one third of the verdict, or $1.13 million.
John Crane could still appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The company could also seek a rehearing by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Officials with John Crane did not return attempts to seek comment. The company had appealed the case on several grounds, including assertions that the trial court judge erred on evidence rulings and allowed the case to proceed under federal maritime law rather than Virginia law.
State and federal courts have the authority to hear federal maritime cases. Federal maritime law is considered a better route for the plaintiffs in wrongful death cases because it has a lower burden of proof and allows recovery for the suffering of the deceased.
But the Virginia Supreme Court disagreed with Crane on all counts and rejected the company's contention that the verdict was too big. "We cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in determining that the verdict was not excessive and not so out of proportion to the injuries suffered," the court's opinion noted.
SOURCE: DailyPress
The court said Friday it unanimously rejected an appeal by John Crane Inc., the Illinois-based maker of gaskets and other asbestos parts that were handled by shipyard worker Garland F. "Buddy" Jones Jr. in the 1960s.
But the woman who spearheaded the case - Jones' wife of 41 years, Wanda T. Jones - won't see that money. She died of an unrelated cancer just three weeks ago. The couple's three children are the beneficiaries.
In July 2006, a Newport News jury determined that the family deserved $10.4 million in the wrongful death suit filed by Jones against three companies that made equipment with asbestos components.
Aside from John Crane, the defendants were Denver-based Johns Manville Corp., a maker of insulation industrial materials, and Garlock Sealing Technologies of Palmyra, N.Y.
A judge reduced the jury verdict to $10 million, the amount the family initially sought. John Crane, the jury said, was responsible for $3.4 million, with Johns Manville and Garlock Sealing each responsible for $3.3 million. However, Johns Manville and Garlock Sealing settled their cases before the verdict - for far less than the jury-determined amounts, Hatten said.
The $3.4 million award still ranks among the largest verdicts in a Virginia asbestos case, said Bob Hatten, the attorney with Patten, Wornom, Hatten and Diamonstein who handled the case.
Ansley Higginbotham, 29, Jones' daughter who lives in Orange, northeast of Charlottesville, said she and her two brothers are disappointed their mother didn't live to see the court uphold the verdict, but are grateful the "greatest legal minds in Virginia" found the award just. "It's a bittersweet day for our family," Higginbotham said. "It was important to our mother to receive justice in this case. She worked very tirelessly to make it happen, and I'm very proud of her for seeing it through during such a difficult time. She did not allow such a big company to intimidate her."
Because shipbuilding involved the use of asbestos for so many years, Hatten asserted, the Peninsula has one of the nation's highest rates of asbestos-related cancers.
Jones worked at Newport News Shipbuilding between 1963 and 1967, later becoming a computer programmer near Richmond. But he had enough exposure to asbestos fibers in those years to spur mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the lungs, some decades later.
Jones was diagnosed with that cancer in January 2005 - 38 years after he last worked at the yard - and died within six months at age 60. He initiated the lawsuit in Newport News Circuit Court before he died.
Higginbotham testified that her father's death in a nursing home was an "absolute nightmare."
"It was intractable pain, pain that is not eliminated with any type of narcotics, and it's constant," Hatten said.
Jones' three children will share two thirds of the $3.4 million verdict against John Crane, or $2.27 million. Because the family had spent $100,000 for expert testimony at the trial, their effective award is $2.17 million.
The lawyers on the case, Patten Wornom, Hatten and Diamonstein, and the Colorado firm of Trine & Metcalf, will share the remaining one third of the verdict, or $1.13 million.
John Crane could still appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The company could also seek a rehearing by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Officials with John Crane did not return attempts to seek comment. The company had appealed the case on several grounds, including assertions that the trial court judge erred on evidence rulings and allowed the case to proceed under federal maritime law rather than Virginia law.
State and federal courts have the authority to hear federal maritime cases. Federal maritime law is considered a better route for the plaintiffs in wrongful death cases because it has a lower burden of proof and allows recovery for the suffering of the deceased.
But the Virginia Supreme Court disagreed with Crane on all counts and rejected the company's contention that the verdict was too big. "We cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in determining that the verdict was not excessive and not so out of proportion to the injuries suffered," the court's opinion noted.
SOURCE: DailyPress
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