Former shipyard worker wins in mesothelioma trial

Pennsylvania - New Jersey - New York - Nationwide

A Norfolk man who suffers from cancer says working around asbestos caused his disease.

September 6, 2008

NEWPORT NEWS - A former shipyard worker won a $4.39 million jury verdict Friday from an Illinois maker of asbestos-related parts that he asserted gave him a terminal form of cancer.

John O. Koonce, 59, a former worker at Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Corp., was awarded $4 million in compensatory damages and $390,000 in medical expenses from John Crane Inc., a Morton Grove, Ill., company.

That came after a two-and-a-half week jury trial and a day of deliberations at Newport News Circuit Court.

Koonce, 59, of Norfolk, diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2006, worked with John Crane gaskets, packing material and other asbestos parts between 1967 and 1971 while repairing ships at the Norfolk dockyard.

Koonce then went off to other jobs, including working for many years in operations at The Virginian-Pilot. Since being diagnosed, he had a lung removed, and suffers severe fatigue. He can't travel or help his neighbors as he once could. His cancer is in remission, but doctors say he is likely to die a painful death from the disease.

"I'm pleased with the verdict," Koonce said. "It just shows the justice system does work. I thank the jury — three long weeks, long hours each day and that's a lot of responsibility. I'm happy with the verdict. I'd give it all back for my lung though, that's for sure."

Koonce wasn't going out to celebrate Friday night. "I'm actually going to take a nap," he said. "My nieces are in the house and cooking and I will have dinner with them."

The suit claimed John Crane knew or should have known that breathing asbestos fibers was dangerous, and was negligent in failing to test its products and warn workers.

Bobby Hatten, with the firm of Patten, Wornom, Hatten & Diamonstein, had asked the jury for $14 million — more than three times the verdict — but called the award "a good decision."

"If you let the jury be the conscious of the community, you get the right result," Hatten said.

The Koonce case was the third mesothelioma jury trial that Hatten's firm has won against John Crane. This one ranked in the middle of how much the company had to pay. John Crane had to pay $5.5 million in one case, and $3.3 million in another.

Given those amounts, Hatten criticized the company for its no-settlement policy.

"Settlements are what reasonable companies do to resolve litigation," he said. "When that doesn't happen, they get to face the jury."

Officials from John Crane could not be reached for comment late Friday. Nor could the company's lead defense attorney on the case, Thomas J. Burns.

Another company that Koonce sued, Garlock Sealing Technologies, settled its portion of the case out of court. The jurors had the chance to reduce the verdict against John Crane by what Garlock would have had to pay had that case gone forward. But it decided not to do so.

Koonce stands to get $2.93 million, or two-thirds of the verdict amount, while Patten, Wornom, Hatten & Diamonstein stands to get the other third, or $1.46 million. Hatten said the firm spent two years on the case and assigned five lawyers to it.

Now the question will be whether John Crane will appeal the verdict, something it's done in the past to no avail. The problem, Hatten said, is those appeals can take two years, and "we want this money in my client's hands before he dies."

There's a possibility, Hatten said, that John Crane could offer not to appeal in return for a reduction in the award amount.

"If it goes through a long appeals process, that's not necessarily going to be in his interest."

Koonce, however, isn't giving up hope that his cancer will stay in remission: "Hopefully I'll be one of those rare cases."