There was a defense verdict this week in a silica trial in Adams County that started on Monday.
Patrick Malouf with Porter & Malouf in Ridgeland and Allen Smith represented the plaintiff.
Wade Manor and Chaney Nichols with Scott Sullivan in Ridgeland represented the defendant.
This is a different trial from the Claiborne County trial going on this week. We may be about to get a lesson in the significance of venue.
There was a $5 million verdict on Friday in a Jones County silica trial with 10% fault assigned to the defendant. Here is the Harris Martin article on the verdict:
ELLISVILLE, Miss. –– A Mississippi jury has awarded $5 million to a silica plaintiff, assessing 10 percent liability to American Optical, sources have confirmed to HarrisMartin. McGilberry v. Pangborn Corp., No. 2007-16-CV5 (Miss. Cir. Ct., Jones Cty., Dist. 1.).
The Mississippi First Judicial Circuit Court for Jones County jury reached the verdict on Friday, Aug. 6, sources said. Judge Billy Joe Landrum presided over the one-week trial, which ended after approximately four hours of jury deliberations.
The underlying claims were brought by John McGilberry, who claimed that his work as a jackhammer demolishing concrete exposed him to respirable silica. McGilberry also alleged that he was exposed to silica as a bystander while sandblasting for seven days in the 1970s.
As a result of this exposure, McGilberry claimed that he eventually developed pneumoconiosis.
American Optical, whose 1050 and 1010 disposable respirators were at issue in the case, was the lone remaining defendant at the time of the verdict. The company argued that the plaintiff had failed to properly identify their product; that the exposure history was insufficient to cause silicosis; and that in the plaintiff’s 30-year medical history, he was diagnosed and treated for sarcoidosis but silicosis was never mentioned.
Testifying on behalf of the plaintiff were Steven E. Haber, M.D., pulmonology; Vernon E. Rose, Dr.PH, industrial hygiene; Frank Giles, life care planner; and Charles Dennis, economist.
Testifying on behalf of American Optical were Robert M. Middleton, M.D., pulmonology; David R. Derr, M.D., radiology; Joseph Zdrok, corporate representative; and Dr. David Anderson, industrial hygiene.
Counsel for the plaintiff were R. Allen Smith Jr., Patrick Malouf and John T. Givens of Porter & Malouf in Jackson, Miss.
American Optical was represented by Walter T. Johnson and Michael O. Gwin of Watkins Eager in Jackson, Miss.
Additional Information:
Sources are telling me that $2.5 million of the verdict was for non-economic damages. The defendant wants to reduce the non-economic damages under the cap to $1 million and then apply the 90% reduction due to the defendant being only 10% at fault. This would make the judgment $350,000 instead of $500,000.I do not know if that is the correct way to apply the cap. My guess is that it's not.
Today a Warren County jury awarded a plaintiff $7.6 million in a silica trial before Judge Isadore Patrick. The verdict included $4.6 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages. The trial started last week. It is unclear how Mississippi's damages caps may affect the amount of the verdict.
There is a photograph of silica to the right. Without proper masks sandblasters can suffer lung damage from breathing silica dust.
The defendant was a sand manufacturer. The plaintiff was a former sandblaster who developed silicosis after working for 25 years at a Marathon Letourneau facility. There were other defendants in the case who settled before trial. It's my understanding that the losing defendant made no real offer to settle.
Plaintiff's counsel were Tim Porter and Allen Smith of Jackson. Defense counsel was Chaney Nichols of Scott Sullivan Streetman in Ridgeland and, I believe, John Galloway of New Orleans.
This is not the first large verdict in Warren County this year. I discussed earlier verdicts here and here.
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