PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania – A Philadelphia jury which awarded over $25 million to one plaintiff in a three part trial also awarded a total of $12.4 million to two other plaintiffs in the case. The three cases were combined in a reverse bifurcation case.

All three cases involved plaintiffs who diead of mesothelioma, and were brought by the estates of the deceased men. James Baccus, whose estate pursued the case through the liability phase, was awarded $7 million in compensatory damages and $18.6 million in punitive damages. The other two cases were settled before the liability phase, but after determination of compensatory damages.

Richard Scherr died at age 71 of mesothelioma. He was survived by his wife and nine children. His asbestos suit alleged that he was exposed to asbestos while working for PFK-Mark III Inc., which used asbestos material to build water and sewer treatment facilities.
Scherr’s wife and estate were awarded $8.6 million against Garlock, Fairbanks Morse and Durahbla. All three companies settled with the plaintiffs after the damages phase for an undisclosed amount.Scherr also settled before the trial with A.W. Chesterton, Certainteed, Goulds Pumps, Greene Tweed, Hajoca, Lincoln Supply and Melrath Gasket.

In the remaining case, William Wheeler was a union painter. Wheeler was exposed to asbestos at several work sites during his work in Pennsylvania and New Jersey from 1954 to 2001. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma at age 67, and died of the cancer just 12 months after his diagnosis.

Wheeler’s estate was awarded $4 million in compensatory damages against Garlock Sealing Technologies. Garlock settled with Wheeler after the damages phase of the trial. Eleven other companies settled for undisclosed amounts with the Wheeler estate before the trial. Those companies were A.W. Chesterton, General Electric, Westinghouse, SPS Technologies, Allied Signal, Pep Boys, Arco, MA Bruder, Georgia Pacific, Bondex and Kaiser Gypsum.

In the single case that went to the liability phase of the trial, the plaintiffs asked the judge to instruct the jury to follow Kentucky law in apportioning the punitive damages. Under Kentucky law, juries assign a percentage of the fault to each defendant in a case, including those that settled before the case comes to trial. Under Pennsylvania law, all defendants split the damages equally. The strategy, which was meant to reduce the liability held by each of the defendants, backfired when the jury chose to assign no liability to the defendants that had already settled with the plaintiff.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Asbestos Litigation, Pennsylvania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.