Archive for the ‘cancer’ Category

A jury in Newport News, Virginia awarded the family of a retired Navy sailor, Gerald Gray, $1.2 million in a lawsuit against a ship parts manufacturer alleging that Mr. Gray died of lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure.  Mr. Gray was age 75 when he died.  Unfortunately, he did not survive long enough to see the jury return the verdict against John Crane, Inc., an Illinois parts manufacturer of gaskets and others parts used on ships in shipyards that shipyard workers like Gray repaired. 

The total jury award was $4 million against five manufacturers.  The jury, however, was instructed to assign blame to each shipyard related asbestos manufacturer and apportioned $1.2 million of liability to John Crane, Inc.  The jury did not know that the remaining four manufacturers already settled out of court for undisclosed amounts and, therefore, the liability findings against them will not become part of the final judgment.   The jury concluded that ship part manufacturer John Crane, which fought the case, was responisible for 30% of the damages in the case.  Read more about asbestos in shipyards.

On Monday, five Oregon Army National Guard soldiers filed lawsuits in federal court in Oregon against a war contractor, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), alleging that KBR knowingly exposed them to a cancer-causing chemical, chromium, during their tours in Iraq. 

The soldiers allege that they were exposed to chromium at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in Iraq in May 2003.  The soldiers were charged with protecting civilian employees working at the treatment plant, which was a key part of the Iraqi oil production. 

The lawsuits allege that KBR of Houston knew the site was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a highly toxic and long-identified carcinogen, before the solders arrived.  The lawsuits claim that KBR either failed to do the required testing at the treatment plant or destroyed the records regarding treatment and further discounted soldiers’ and civilians’ bloody noses and other symptoms of chromium exposure as sand allergies.

In addition to the cases filed in Oregon, cases are expected to be brought by soldiers from West Virginia who have been exposed to chromium.  Last year, 15 Indiana National Guard members who replaced the Oregon troops at the water planed filed similar lawsuits.  Various KBR employees also brought cases, but their cases are being handled in arbitration.