Mesothelioma Injury Compensation for Family of Shipyard Worker

The family of a man, who died from asbestos exposure after working in his home city´s shipyards, has been awarded a mesothelioma injury compensation settlement of 9.18 million dollars by a jury in Virginia after a three week trial.

John Bristow from Newport News in Virginia died in 2011 from mesothelioma cancer after working in the city´s shipyards for 37 years. Although retiring as a design engineer, doctors who attended him before his death suggested that the exposure to asbestos which was responsible for his condition had occurred in the 1960s and 1970s.

During that period, John had worked for five different companies; however the claim for work related illness brought by John´s widow, Anne, and her two sons was made against John Crane Inc. of Morton Grove, Illinois, who manufactured gaskets and sheet packing which contained asbestos for the shipbuilding industry.

Anne´s legal representatives argued that John Crane Inc. had been one of the main users of asbestos in the Newport News shipyards, and should have been aware of the dangers of working with asbestos but failed to warn their employees. It was claimed that John would have been breathing in countless millions of asbestos fibres over the years without even knowing it.

After two days of deliberations, the jury agreed with Anne´s legal representatives and awarded John´s family a total of 9.18 million dollars to account for John´s pain and suffering while he was ill, Anne´s psychological suffering while she watched her husband die from this incurable illness, and the loss of a father to John´s two sons.