More than 1,000 former shipyard and construction workers who say their health was damaged by breathing asbestos can seek financial compensation from a spate of manufacturers and suppliers under a verdict yesterday by a Baltimore jury.
The decision followed a six-month trial and is the latest installment in the country's largest asbestos case, which ultimately could involve 10,000 Baltimore-area workers or, in the case of deceased workers, their estates.
After deliberating for 11 days, the Baltimore Circuit Court jury found 11 companies negligent for failing to warn workers about the potential health hazards posed by exposure to asbestos. The jury also awarded more than $20 million in damages to five former workers whose cases were included to add a human face to the trial.
Of those five cases, four of the plaintiffs are living. In John Goodman's case, the award will go to his estate and to his wife. The Dundalk man died in February of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining or abdomen whose only known cause is asbestos exposure. He was 72.
Mr. Goodman lived to tell of the World War II kamikaze attack on his Navy battleship. But he couldn't survive the legacy of six years spent wrapping pipes with asbestos-containing insulation at the Standard Oil refinery on Boston Street.
"He represents the American worker, and it's one reason he was chosen," said Charles A. Candon, a lawyer with Peter G. Angelos' firm, which represents most of the plaintiffs. "It's an American tragedy."
In July, jurors in the case were played a videotape of a deposition Mr. Goodman gave in October 1993 -- after his condition had been deemed terminal.
"With all the love and prayers, I know I'll make it," he said then.
Later, in a videotaped interview on his deathbed, Mr. Goodman said, "I've never endured such pain."
His 70-year-old widow, Irene Goodman, wiped tears from her eyes while accepting congratulations after the jury awarded $9 million to her and to her husband's estate.
Mr. Goodman's lawyers said he worked for Standard Oil from 1951 to 1957 and then went on to sell insurance and work nearly 20 years as a baker -- never again holding a job that exposed him to asbestos.
Four other plaintiffs -- Leonard Ciotta of Parkville, Frederick Glensky of Glen Burnie, Carroll Morrow of Lutherville and Terry Theis of Baltimore -- were awarded damages ranging from $500,000 to $7 million.
Yesterday's verdicts ended the first phase of a trial that has been dubbed "Consolidation 2." The verdicts against the 11 companies clear the way for the 1,100 workers to pursue claims in future "mini-trials." These hearings would decide damages for individual plaintiffs -- if they can prove that they were exposed to asbestos and that asbestos caused their illnesses.
The jury also found Harbison-Walker Refractories, Rapid American Corp. and Westinghouse Electric Corp. liable for punitive damages. The other firms found negligent were Asbestospray Corp., A. W. Chesterton Co., Corhart Refractories Co., E. L. Stebbing & Co., Hampshire Industries, John Crane Inc., Lloyd E. Mitchell Inc. and U.S. Mineral Products Co.
In 1992, another Baltimore jury found six companies liable for damages, which allowed some 8,500 other workers to press their cases at mini-trials. Those plaintiffs' cases could be affected by the second-phase of Consolidation 2, which will address cross-claims among defendant companies found liable in the first trial. The third and final phase of the trial, expected to end next month, will address punitive damages for the five individual cases.