Claims by Lockheed Workers End in Mistrial : Litigation: Jury fails to agree on whether chemical suppliers were responsible for ailments. Tense moments marked the longest deliberations in U.S civil history.

The eight-month trial of a chemical exposure lawsuit filed by Lockheed workers ended in dramatic fashion Thursday when a judge declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict despite the longest deliberations in a civil case in U.S. history.

After 12 weeks of deliberations in the extraordinarily complex case, jurors said they were close many times to finding at least three chemical companies at fault for injuries allegedly suffered by workers who built the F-117A Stealth fighter and other military aircraft at Lockheed’s Burbank complex during the 1970s and ‘80s.

But jurors said the months of heated arguments--and even personal attacks and strong-arm tactics--failed to produce the 9-3 majority needed to hold the companies financially responsible or absolve them of responsibility for injuries allegedly suffered by workers at the complex, which included the top-secret and now-defunct “Skunk Works” facility.

The workers had sued Lockheed and nearly two dozen of the company’s chemical suppliers for allegedly failing to provide adequate warnings of the dangers of their products.

After jurors asked Superior Court Judge Melvin B. Grover to declare the mistrial, defense lawyer Robert H. McMillan, representing Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co., dismissed the proceedings as “a colossal waste of public resources.”

Lawyers for the Lockheed workers and their family members pledged to seek a retrial. “We’re not going to give up fighting for these people,” said Brian Gonzalez, a lawyer for some plaintiffs.

But perhaps no one was as upset as Grover, the judge who imposed a gag order on lawyers and in recent weeks had to stave off a rebellion among bitterly divided and frustrated jurors.

“I feel terrible,” Grover told a reporter. “I spent 10 goddamned months of my life on this thing.”

Many jurors said they were relieved the trial was over, and satisfied they had done their best despite what seven of them described in a note to the judge as the “emotional and antagonistic” environment in the jury room. But they also expressed anger at some colleagues for failing to budge to reach a verdict, and at Lockheed, for quietly settling with the injured workers before the trial began.

The trial involved 14 workers, chosen as “pilot” plaintiffs from a group of 624 current and former Lockheed employees. They all had filed damage claims against Lockheed and firms that supplied it with solvents, resins and epoxies, blaming them for maladies ranging from skin rashes and memory loss to cancer deaths.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys had to establish that the workers were harmed by chemical exposure and that their injuries were because of the chemical firms’ failure to provide adequate warnings.

The jurors found that one chemical company, Allied Signal Inc., had provided adequate safety warning. At least nine jurors agreed that three other firms--General Electric Co., Ashland Chemical Co. and J. T. Baker Inc.--had failed to adequately warn of the possible dangers of their products. But in each of those cases, nine jurors could not agree that the inadequate warnings resulted in workers’ injuries.

Lockheed settled and was dismissed from the case before the trial began in August. Details of the settlement were kept from the jury, and the terms were to remain secret by request of Lockheed and agreement of other parties.

However, The Times has learned that Lockheed agreed to pay $33 million, along with $300,000 to a team of judicial mediators to distribute the settlement fund among the plaintiffs.

Lockheed officials have said they only settled to avoid the cost and disruption of a long trial. Company officials refused comment Thursday.

Several jurors were insistent on holding the chemical companies liable, and an equal number refused to agree. Tension in the jury room grew to the breaking point.

“There were racial slurs, propaganda, you name it,” said Katie Covington, 51, a gas company worker from South-Central Los Angeles who is African-American.

Juror Edna Fields said that during one tense moment, she moved to attack a male juror when two other jurors held her back. “I was ready to go to blows,” said Fields, 44, of Pasadena, who felt warnings by the companies were adequate.

Some jury members, such as foreman Melinda Santa Ana of Rosemead, said the companies failed to issue adequate warnings but also that the plaintiffs’ lawyers never proved any injuries were caused by the chemicals.