On June 20, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts found Turner & Newell Limited, a valve manufacturer, liable for $9.3 million in damages in an asbestos case. Now, the defendant is seeking a new trial, claiming the jury did not receive information regarding the plaintiff’s prior state court trial or Turner & Newell’s bankruptcy proceeding.
The lawsuit was filed by Katherine Lydon via her agent, the Federal-Mogul Asbestos Personal Injury Trust, on behalf of John T. Lydon, a deceased mesothelioma victim. In the 1960s, Mr. Lydon came into contact with asbestos-containing insulation manufactured by Turner & Newell.
After two weeks of trial, Katherine Lydon was awarded $3.1 million in compensatory damages and $6.2 million in punitive damages.
The defendant immediately filed a motion for a new trial, claiming the judgment did not apply to the case. “Although the jurors thought they were being asked to award money to Mrs. Lydon, they were instead being asked to shift monies from one side of a balance sheet to another in the trust’s effort to attempt to access an excess layer of insurance and facilitate payments to other trust claimants,” stated Turner & Newell in its motion.
“In other words, the trust is seeking to use punitive damages to compensate large numbers of claimants who are, in all likelihood, entitled to no damages at all from T&N.”
The motion was partially granted and partially denied by Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, who ruled that Turner & Newell would be “generally” allowed to introduce evidence from the state court trial to present the possibility that Lydon’s mesothelioma was the result of asbestos exposure from alternate sources. Saylor added that Turner & Newell would not be allowed to provide information regarding the previous trial’s outcome, nor could the defendant reference its bankruptcy proceeding.