NEW YORK CITY, New York – A New York City jury awarded a total of $9 million to two mesothelioma victims and their wives for damages caused by asbestos exposure. The jury verdicts were handed down against two companies against whom no jury had ever returned a verdict in the history of New York City asbestos exposure litigation.

The jury trial involved two separate cases (Rosenberg and Casale) that were joined for a single trial before Justice Marcy S. Friedman.

The case of Joel and Sharon Rosenberg v. Alpha Wire Company et al involved asbestos exposure suffered by Mr. Rosenberg while working as an electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 3. According to the suit, Mr. Rosenberg worked as an electrician starting in the 1960s while he was still in his teens. He was exposed to asbestos in the course of his work as an electrician in New York. Mr. Rosenberg worked at a variety of worksites, including the Arthur Kill Powerhouse in Staten Island, the Deutsche Bank Building, the Vista Hotel in the Financial District and the Cross Bay Bridge. Among the duties that exposed him to asbestos were cutting, skinning and skinning of wire and cable coated with asbestos insulation. As a result of his workplace exposure, stated Rosenberg’s suit, he developed mesothelioma, a rare cancer that has no other cause.

In a historic decision, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the Rosenbergs against a manufacture of power cable that contained asbestos. This is the first time that a jury had returned a verdict against a manufacturer that made cable used in public buildings in asbestos litigation in New York. The judgment was for $3 million for Mr. Rosenberg’s pain and suffering, and $1 million to Mrs. Rosenberg for loss of services and society. Mr. Rosenberg was diagnosed with mesothelioma after his retirement and died at age sixty-four.

Joseph and Dolores Casale brought suit against a number of firms that he claimed were responsible for his exposure to asbestos and ultimately for his mesothelioma. Mr. Casale began working at shipyards, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, while he was still in his teens. He became a member of the Local 638 Union and continued to work as a steam fitter, also called a pipe fitter, ad a number of job sites in New York City throughout the 1960s and 1970s. During those decades, steam fitters were often exposed to asbestos without their knowledge because asbestos was used on equipment and materials like valves, boilers and steam traps.

The Casale suit alleged that Mr. Casale was exposed to asbestos from a number of different products, including steam traps and valves, both from internal asbestos components and from asbestos insulation that was applied to the traps and valves, and later developed mesothelioma as a result of his exposure to asbestos in those products.

The jury award in the Casale case totaled $5 million, including $1.5 million for Mr. Casale’s pain and suffering to date and $1.5 million for his future pain and suffering, and $1 million to Mrs. Casale for lose of service and society to date and $1 million for her future loss of service and society. Mr. Casale is 66 and living with mesothelioma. He testified at the trial.

The Casale case also was a historic verdict, representing the first time that a jury has returned a verdict involving steam traps in the history of asbestos litigation nationwide.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Asbestos Litigation, Jobsite Exposure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.