Jury Awards Injured Janitor $6.65 Million

A Los Angeles jury has awarded a Burbank laborer nearly $7 million after it found that a studio film lab intentionally harmed him by removing labels on cleaning fluids and lying about the dangers, according to lawyers for both sides.

Ross Gunnell, 36, said he suffered neurological damage from his exposure to the chemicals.

“They wanted me to shut up,” Gunnell said Wednesday. “And I didn’t.”

The lab, Metrocolor Laboratories Inc. of Culver City, is out of business, but Gunnell expects to collect damages from Time Warner Entertainment Co. Time Warner acquired the lab’s parent company, Lorimar Telepictures, in 1989.

Gunnell said he became sick after mopping the floors and ceilings of the film lab with an unmarked cleaning fluid. Gunnell testified that he saw the lab foreman peel off warning labels.

Five years later, Gunnell learned from co-workers that the cleaner was a potent industrial de-greaser that could be absorbed through the skin and cause brain damage. By that point, Gunnell said, he was suffering intense headaches, dizziness and memory loss.

Defense attorney Russel Hiles said there was no evidence of intent to harm Gunnell.

“Even if the foreman did rip off the labels and tell him the cleaner was safe, that still doesn’t rise to the level of intentional harm,” Hiles said.

Hiles also argued that Absorb Cleaner, the butoxyethnol-based solvent Gunnell used, was no more dangerous than common household products.

The first phase of the month-long jury trial, held before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Boland, ended Friday, with the jury awarding Gunnell $1.65 million in compensatory damages for medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering. On Wednesday, the jury returned with another $5 million for Gunnell in punitive damages.

Lawyers for Metrolab say they will appeal.