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.
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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