Articles & News

$1.153 million asbestos award upheld

Palm Beach Post, June 24, 2004

By Mary McLachlin, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 24, 2004

WEST PALM BEACH -- The 4th District Court of Appeal upheld a jury's $1.153 million award to an asbestos cancer victim Wednesday, ruling that Union Carbide Corp. didn't fully disclose the product's hazards or warn users about it.

Dennis Kavanaugh, a West Palm Beach carpenter, claimed that inhaling asbestos fibers in drywall joint compound during the 1970s led to stomach cancer 30 years later. Kavanaugh, 61, died in December of mesothelioma, a malignancy of the linings of major organs.

A Union Carbide spokesman couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

The company mined asbestos and supplied it to manufacturers for use as a binder in the joint adhesive. Kavanaugh sued several manufacturers, including Georgia-Pacific Corp., but a jury found Union Carbide 100 percent at fault in May 2003.

The company appealed, saying it had fulfilled its duty by putting warning labels on bags of raw asbestos sold to manufacturers and that it had no way of warning "ultimate users" not to breathe drywall dust. It also said Circuit Judge Timothy McCarthy erred in not dismissing the case before it went to the jury.

The appellate court said McCarthy was right to let the jury decide the case and that the evidence "clearly showed that although (Union Carbide) provided information and some warning to Georgia-Pacific, it did not fully disclose the magnitude of the hazards then known to exist."

In December, the court ruled that Union Carbide was 90 percent liable for a $1.8 million verdict won by a Broward County drywall worker.

"I certainly hope this gets the point across to Union Carbide," said Kavanaugh's attorney, David Jagolinzer of Ferraro & Associates, Miami. "This is the second case in which no court has bought any of their arguments."

mary_mclachlin@pbpost.com