4 Firms Must Pay Punitive Damages in Asbestos Case, Jury Rules
Four companies that made or distributed asbestos products must pay punitive damages up to 2 1/2 times their share of compensatory damages, jurors said Monday in the nation’s largest consolidation of asbestos personal-injury cases.
It was the fourth and final stage of a five-month trial observed closely by judges and attorneys from across the country. About 86,000 asbestos injury cases are pending nationwide, and an industry analyst said they could be significantly influenced by the Baltimore trial.
The punitive-damage formulas apply to four sample plaintiffs and will be used in later mini-trials to decide the claims of 8,549 Maryland workers who contend they became ill from asbestos exposure.
The punitive damages were assessed against GAF Corp., Keene Corp., Pittsburgh Corning Corp. and Porter-Hayden Co.
The plaintiffs, most of whom worked as pipe-fitters, boilermakers, shipbuilders or steelworkers, claimed they got cancer, lung diseases and other illnesses because of asbestos exposure on the job.
Companies generally stopped using the fibrous, heat-resistant mineral beginning in the 1970s.
The companies argued they shouldn’t pay any extra damages as punishment. Plaintiffs’ attorneys asked for punitive damages up to four times the amount of compensatory damages.
Compensatory damages pay for actual losses; punitive damages are extra payments assessed as punishment.
The jury deliberated four hours over two days before deciding that GAF, the largest company involved in the lawsuit, should pay punitive damages amounting to 2 1/2 times its share of compensatory damages.
Keene and Pittsburgh Corning were ordered to pay 1 1/2 times their share of compensatory damages. Porter-Hayden, the smallest company, was ordered to pay punitive damages amounting to 35% of its compensatory damages.
Attorneys for the companies said they will challenge the jury’s verdicts on a number of grounds, including the belief that Circuit Judge Marvin Levin was wrong to consolidate the Maryland cases.
