Jury Says Parts Makers Must Pay $32M to Navy Veteran in Ship-Asbestos Case; Defense Vows to Appeal
Updated: A former U.S. Navy boiler tender who was found to have contracted cancer as a result of working aboard ships with parts that contained asbestos was awarded $32 million by a New York state court jury last week.
Ronald Dummitt, 68, of Kentucky, developed pleural mesothelioma as a result of the work he did for the Navy between 1960 and 1977, WSAZ reports. The jury gave him $16 million for past pain and suffering and another $16 million for future pain and suffering in the New York County case.
Two makers of equipment on which Dummitt worked were held liable, a press release explains.
Crane Co., which manufactured valves that Dummit repaired by removing and replacing asbestos-containing parts, on all seven of the Navy ships on which he worked, was held 99 percent responsible for the award.
Elliott Turbomachinery Co. Inc., which manufactured feed tanks into which Dummitt installed asbestos-containing parts on one of the seven ships, was held 1 percent responsible.
The defendants were found liable because they violated their duty to warn Dummitt of the danger of the asbestos-containing materials.
However, a spokesman for K&L Gates, which represented the Crane Co., tells that ABA Journal that its client will appeal the verdict, on a number of grounds.
For starters, the spokesman said, none of the asbestos-containing products that injured Dummitt came from the Crane company; they were all from other suppliers. And the defense sought, and failed to get, a jury instruction asking for apportionment of liability not only between Crane and Elliott Turbomachinery but between these two companies and the Navy, which was not named by the plaintiff as a defendant in the case.
Also expected to be at issue on appeal are whether the jury’s award to Dummit was excessive and whether Crane can be held liable for supplying a product to specifications established by the U.S. government.
A request for comment by the ABA Journal this afternoon to partner Katharine S. Perry of Adler Pollock & Sheehan, which represented Elliott Turbomachinery, did not receive an immediate response.
Dummitt was represented by both New York-based Belluck & Fox and the Eves Law Firm of Huntington, W.Va.
Updated at 5:44 p.m. to include information from K&L Gates.
