Firms to Appeal Reduced Award for Burbank Lockheed Workers

Five major oil and chemical companies have filed notice of a new appeal against a reduced $380-million toxic pollution verdict in a case involving 38 past and present Burbank Lockheed workers, it was announced Wednesday.

Two weeks ago, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard C. Hubbell, threatening to order a new trial, won the consent of plaintiffs’ attorney Thomas V. Girardi to reduce an original $760-million punitive damage verdict by half.

But, in announcing the appeal Wednesday, the defense attorney for Exxon, Unocal, Shell, Ashland and Du Pont said that amount is still too high. The defense attorney, Laurence F. Janssen, declared: “I’m sure the plaintiffs were happy with this award because it is still absolutely outrageous and without merit.”

Janssen has repeatedly accused the judge of exhibiting bias in the case by urging the jurors, just before their deliberations began, to “send a notice out to the world” by rendering a large verdict.

Hubbell has responded to the accusations by saying he was seeking to correct misleading comments by lawyers for the companies.

A panel of the state Court of Appeal reversed a ruling by an Orange County judge removing Hubbell from the case.

“This case is far from over,” Janssen said Wednesday. “We’re not going to accept a judgment that is so far out of touch with the facts of this case.”

The companies were found in the verdict to have given workers inadequate warnings about dangerous chemicals they produced that were used at Lockheed’s Burbank facilities.