Products Liability Law Reporter

After graduating from high school, Henry Pete worked as a longshoreman around the Port of New Orleans. From approximately 1964 to 1968, he worked for different employers and was exposed to asbestos while loading and unloading asbestos-containing cargo, including burlap bags of asbestos. While Pete unloaded these bags, some of them would tear, causing dust to spread within a ship’s cargo hold. Additionally, during these years, while living in his family home, Pete experienced secondhand asbestos exposure when he helped his mother handwash the work clothes of his father, who also had worked as a longshoreman at the Port of New Orleans.

Pete, a retiree, was diagnosed as having mesothelioma in 2019. As a result of his illness, he is no longer able to care for his grandchildren as he once did.

Pete sued previous employer Ports America Gulfport, Inc./Atlantic & Gulf, among others, alleging negligence and strict liability. The plaintiff asserted that the defendant failed to provide adequate warnings, safety equipment, ventilation, and breathing apparatus to prevent him from being harmed by exposure to asbestos and failed to provide a safe environment free from asbestos dust.

After a three-week in-person trial, at which jurors wore masks and maintained social distancing, the jury awarded approximately $10.35 million, including $2.5 million for loss of enjoyment of life and $4.3 million for pain and suffering.

Citation: Pete v. Boland Marine & Mfg. Co., No. 19-10545 (La. Dist. Ct. Orleans Parish Nov. 4, 2020).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ member Gary DiMuzio, New York City; AAJ member Michael K. Hibey, AAJ member Melissa Crowe Schopfer, and Jean-Michel LeCointre, all of Alton, Ill.; and AAJ members Lindsey A. Cheek and Jeanne L. St. Romain, both of New Orleans.

Plaintiff experts: Adrian Brody, pathology, New Orleans; Richard Cohen, internal medicine, San Francisco; John Coulter Maddox, pathology, Newport News, Va.; Kenneth Garza, industrial hygiene, San Antonio, Texas; and Gerald Markowitz, history, New York City.