Despite Asbestos Company’s Appeal, Mesothelioma Widow Will Keep $5 Million Award
George Coulbourn served in the U.S. Navy as a machinist, and that work exposed him to numerous asbestos-containing products that he blamed for his malignant mesothelioma diagnosis. After he died, a jury awarded his widow $9 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Though one of the defendants argued for the decision to be reversed and the award reduced, the appeals court hearing their argument, ruled that the jury’s verdict would stand.
$5 Million Punitive Damages Award at Issue in Mesothelioma Verdict
After mesothelioma claimed the Navy veteran’s life, his widow continued his quest for justice as a wrongful death claim. The jury hearing her case awarded her $9 million in compensatory damages and assigned the gasket company John Crane, Inc. 20% responsibility for those damages. The jury also agreed that punitive damages were appropriate and ordered the company to pay her an additional $5 million.
The company appealed the verdict and the damages, arguing that insufficient evidence had been presented at trial for the jury to determine that their gaskets were the cause of the mesothelioma victim’s illness. On reviewing their assertion, the circuit court judges responded that the state of Arizona did not require that a defendant be the sole cause of the injury; rather, the test is whether the company’s product was ‘a substantial factor.’ The judges concluded that the jury had seen enough evidence to support that finding.
Would Mesothelioma Victim Have Listened to Warnings About Asbestos?
The attorneys representing John Crane in the mesothelioma lawsuit also argued that they should not be held responsible for a failure to warn because there was no proof that he would have changed his actions had he received those warnings. The judges rejected this notion, in large part because of the testimony about the significant suffering that the victim had experienced as a result of his illness.
Concerning the punitive damages awarded to the mesothelioma widow, though John Crane argued that their failures did not warrant punitive damages and that the amount was too high, the judges pointed to the plaintiff’s evidence that demonstrated the company had known that its products posed a substantial risk of significant harm to others and did nothing to amend its actions and that the damages were in keeping with ratios seen in other, similar claims.
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