NEW YORK, New York – A New York City man has been awarded $2.25 million in damages and compensation. Leonard Shafer worked as a civilian employee at the New York Naval Shipyard (Brooklyn Navy Yard) in the 1950s and developed mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos there.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignant cancer that is incurable. Its only known cause is exposure to asbestos. In the 1950s, asbestos was widely used at Naval shipyards throughout the country, and many workers at those shipyards have since developed asbestos related diseases like mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is painful and debilitating, crippling the lungs before eventually killing its victims. Shafer’s family was represented by experienced New York mesothelioma lawyers, who were able to prove that Shafer’s mesothelioma stemmed from his exposure to asbestos while working at the shipyard.

Shafer, like most others who worked with and around asbestos, were not aware of the dangers of the widely used mineral. Those who processed, manufactured, sold and distributed asbestos and asbestos containing products, however, were well aware that asbestos dust caused serious health problems in those who were exposed to it. Despite knowing about the dangers, however, they did nothing to warn their workers or others about those hazards. As a result, the employees and customers who worked with materials containing asbestos could not even take the simple steps that would have protected them from deadly lung damage.

According to his lawyers, Shafer endured pain and suffering during the eighteen months between his diagnosis and his death of mesothelioma, one of the deadlier outcomes of asbestos exposure.
Had Shafer and others like him been aware of the hazards of airborne asbestos, they could have protected themselves with respirator masks, as well as protected their families from asbestos dust carried home on their clothing and person. There are simple precautions that reduce the chances of exposure both for those who work with asbestos and their families and those close to them.

Shafer’s job duties included handling packing material containing asbestos that was supplied to the U.S. Navy by John Crane, Inc. The jury determined that Shafer’s mesothelioma resulted from exposure to asbestos contained in the packing material, and held John Crane, Inc. responsible and negligent. The jury felt that John Crane should have reasonably foreseen that the asbestos contained in its products would cause serious harm and be deleterious to those who came in contact with it, and that the company did not provide any or sufficient warning about the hazardous nature of its product.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Asbestos Litigation, New York. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.