$15-Million Verdict in Skunk Works Case Voided

A California state Court of Appeal has thrown out $15.2 million in damages against five oil and chemical companies accused of failing to disclose toxic hazards used in defense manufacturing at Lockheed’s famed Skunk Works here, lawyers said Tuesday.

The three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in Arnold vs. Ashland Chemical Co. that 28 past and current Lockheed employees who alleged to have suffered brain damage, cancer and other ailments as a consequence of their work at the company’s Burbank defense facility were not intentionally harmed.

“Plaintiffs suffered these injuries while involved in some of the most sensitive work in our nation’s defense industry,” Presiding Justice Paul Turner wrote in the unanimous decision dated Friday. “There is absolutely no evidence that any vile, base, contemptible . . . conduct that would be despised by ordinary decent people was engaged in by any defendant or its employees.”

The court overturned both a $7.5-million punitive damage award and a $7.7-million compensatory damage award. Both parties were ordered back to court to reargue the compensatory damages, but the panel said the claim of punitive damages would not be subject to retrial.

The Arnold case is one of half a dozen court actions brought by 627 people who worked at the defense facilities and filed suit against the companies--including Exxon, Union Oil, Shell Oil, Ashland Chemical and Du Pont.