About two weeks ago, I saw my friend Theile McVey at Starbucks. She mentioned in our general chit-chat that she was in trial. As shop talk usually goes, I asked her what kind of case it was, and she said it was an asbestos case. Apparently, it went pretty well. I don't have much in terms of details and will try to update this post if/when I get more information, but for now, John Monk at The State Newspaper did a nice article today, which can be found here and is cut and pasted below. (I added in a few hyperlinks for additional information).
Richland County jury awards $38 million in asbestos
case
Published: September 12, 2013 Updated 12 hours ago
By JOHN MONK — jmonk@thestate.com
A Richland County jury
has awarded a Wagener equipment worker and his wife $38 million in damages for
health problems linked to exposure to asbestos.
Following a 21/2-week
trial, the jury awarded plaintiff Lloyd Strom Garvin, 74, $10 million in actual
damages and another $1 million in actual damages to his wife of 50-plus years,
Velda Garvin, for loss of consortium.
The jury also ordered
defendants Durco and Crane Co. to pay $11 million each in punitive damages to
Lloyd Garvin. It ordered a third defendant, Byron Jackson, to pay $5 million in
punitive damages.
A spokesman for Crane
said Thursday the company will appeal. Among possible grounds for appeal are
“no credible evidence” and excessive and unwarranted jury awards, said TerryBudd, a Pittsburgh lawyer who represents Crane.
“The verdict is
flawed,” Budd said. “We’re definitely appealing.”
Efforts to reach
Charleston attorney Tim Bouch, who represented Durco and Byron Jackson during
the trial, were unsuccessful Thursday.
Durco, Byron Jackson
and Crane are major companies that manufacture pumps and valves. Garvin
contended his years of exposure to their asbestos-containing gaskets and
packing in valves and pumps that he used in factory and farm work caused him to
develop mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that plaintiffs said was nearly
always caused by asbestos exposure.
The jury was out some
four hours and returned a final verdict around 9 p.m. Wednesday night. Circuit Judge Garrison Hill of Greenville presided.
Originally, Garvin’s
lawsuit named 13 defendants, but most had been dropped or settled by the time
the trial began Aug. 26.
Garvin’s lawyers,
Jessica Dean of Dallas and Theile McVey of the Columbia firm Kassel McVey,
argued at trial that defendants Crane, Durco and Byron Jackson used asbestos in
their products, should have known about its dangers and failed to take action
to warn and protect people like Garvin who work around their products.
Garvin’s testimony and
cross-examination during trial was presented to the jury by a video recording
displayed on a large courtroom screen.
He is currently
recovering from double pneumonia. His lawyers contended at trial that he has
less than a year to live because of his cancer.
During closing
arguments, Garvin’s attorney Dean asked the jury to award $1 million in actual
damages for each year of life that Garvin was expected to miss because of his
fatal disease. Garvin’s life expectancy would have been another 10 to 11 years,
she argued.
Attorney Robert Meriwether of the Columbia firm Nelson Mullins and Bouch were the defendants’
attorneys during trial.
According to a
complaint in 2012 action, some of Lloyd Garvin’s exposure to
asbestos-containing equipment and products came in Wagener while working on his
family farm, as well as while working as a heavy equipment operator in West
Columbia and Aiken.
The trial took place in
Richland County because the complaint, filed in 2012, alleged some of the
exposure had a Richland County connection.
Reach Monk at (803)
771-8344.
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