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Former Mississippi offshore worker wins record verdict following asbestos exposure

Posted on May 12, 2011

A Mississippi man was just awarded the single largest plaintiff’s asbestos verdict in U.S. history. A jury in the Circuit Court of Smith County (MS) ordered defendants Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) and Union Carbide Corporation to pay Thomas “Tony” Brown, Jr., 48, of Brookhaven $322 million dollars on May 10, 2011.The case is Civil Action No. 2006-196. Brown has asbestosis he contracted after handling asbestos in drilling mud while working as a roughneck in the Gulf of Mexico and on rigs in Mississippi from 1979 to 1986. The mud was manufactured by Union Carbide and sold by CP Chem. Both companies allegedly continued to market the product well after they knew about the asbestos dangers, said the plaintiff’s attorney. The jury found the companies liable for defective product design and failure to provide a sufficient warning. The defendants argued that Brown didn’t deserve protection under the state’s statute obligating them to warn workers about the dangers of drilling products because he could not read and write when he began working in the oil fields at 16. Brown’s lawyer said the verdict proves that the people of Mississippi believe that everyone deserves equal protection under the law, even those who can’t read. Brown requires oxygen 24-hours a day from the asbestosis, which causes shortness of breath that worsens over time.

Source: Yahoo News

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