Last week, a jury with the Louisiana Civil District Court for Orleans Parish awarded $10.3 million to a plaintiff who was diagnosed with mesothelioma and had claimed the reason as exposure to raw asbestos while working as a longshoreman in the 1960s.
According to the lawsuit filed, the plaintiff, after graduating from high school, worked as a longshoreman at the Port of New Orleans from 1964 until 1968, where he unloaded shiploads, which included burlap bags of asbestos. The plaintiff testified in the lawsuit that the bags would often tear and spread dust within the ship’s hold. The suit also noted that the plaintiff also experienced second-hand asbestos exposure when he helped his mother hand-wash his father’s dusty work clothes, as his father also worked at the same port.
Hon. Ethel Simms Julien presided the lawsuit, and the trial, which was the first in-person asbestos trial to take place in New Orleans since the COVID-19 pandemic, lasted for three weeks.
The attorneys representing the plaintiffs asserted that the defendants knew the dangers of asbestos but failed to warn their workers. They also noted that in the shipping industry, African-American workers like the plaintiff and his father often do the dirtiest and dangerous jobs.
The jury deliberated for approximately two-and-a-half hours and held the three defendants liable for the plaintiff’s injuries. The three defendants named in the lawsuit are Ports America Gulfport Inc. (f/k/a Atlantic & Gulf), Cooper T. Smith Stevedoring Co. Inc., and South African Marine (Safmarine).
The Louisiana jury awarded $10,351,020.70 in compensatory damages to the plaintiff at the conclusion of the trial.
