The Region - News from May 22, 1985

Employees of a South El Monte precision sheet metal factory have won a $600,000 jury award in their pollution lawsuit against a next door factory they said emitted toxic fumes that injured them and damaged their parked cars. Lawyers for the 18 suing employees and their employer, Aircraft Stamping Co., argued that their clients were exposed to fumes that ate holes in the steel roof under which they worked and corroded the air conditioning system. “If it does that kind of damage to metals, what does it do to human beings?” attorney Federico Sayre asked in closing arguments. Sayre argued that exposure to the toxic fumes disrupts the body’s immune system, leaving victims vulnerable to disease, particularly cancer. Los Angeles Superior Court jurors designated about $365,000 of the award as punitive damages against the ACT Container Co., a drum refurbishing concern that is no longer in business.