Asbestos Jury Finds Six Manufacturers Liable : Workplace: The verdict could result in millions being paid to 8,500 former steel and shipyard workers.

A jury in the nation’s largest-ever asbestos trial Monday found all six defendants liable for manufacturing products they should have known were dangerous, setting the stage for more than 8,500 former steel and shipyard workers from across Maryland to receive compensation for lung cancers and other asbestos-related diseases.

The findings could lead to millions of dollars in damages, since the verdict will be used in upcoming mini-trials that will determine the degree of exposure and specific monetary awards for individual plaintiffs. The stakes could grow higher if the Baltimore jury, in issuing what will be a four-part verdict in the days ahead, decides that punitive damages also should be awarded to the victims, who in some cases filed suit more than a decade ago.

The verdict, which came after two days of deliberations, culminates what has been an expensive and protracted trial. Dozens of lawyers packed the Baltimore Circuit courtroom each day, as did row upon row of former steel and shipyard workers, many of whom were shuttled in by bus.

“I’m confident that our clients will be encouraged by this verdict that their day of compensation is near,” said Patricia Kasputys, an attorney with the law firm Peter G. Angelos, which represents most of the plaintiffs.

Two of the leading defense lawyers on the case, Ed Houff for GAF Corp. and Bill Harvard for Pittsburgh Corning, declined to comment on the case.

In all, about three dozen products were reviewed by the jurors. In every case, the jury found that the asbestos companies were negligent for producing products that they knew or should have known were dangerous to those exposed to them, failed to issue proper warnings about their hazards and are consequently liable for any damages those products caused.

Although relatively little new information was divulged about the dangers of asbestos or what its manufacturers knew about their products, the trial’s sheer size, and the consolidation process used to resolve the thousands of cases, is apt to be copied throughout the country, legal experts said.

“I think the consolidation process was vindicated,” said Judge Marshall Levine after the verdict, who was called out of retirement to handle asbestos litigation.

The plaintiffs in the case filed their suits individually over the past decade, but Levine decided to lump them all together for one mass trial in an attempt to unburden court dockets from across Maryland of asbestos suits that were piling up twice as fast as they were being resolved.

All told, there are nearly 100,000 asbestos personal injury claims pending in federal and state courts across the country.

From settlements made with other defendant companies before the trial’s end, plaintiffs could receive anywhere from $300,000 to $400,000 for those who have life-threatening diseases, down to about $40,000 for those with mild respiratory problems, according to sources familiar with the settlement negotiations. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.

The jury still has to determine whether any of the six plaintiffs who actually had their specific cases heard in the trial should be awarded damages.