Plaintiff Richard Long brought this suit against multiple defendants, including John Crane, after being diagnosed with biphasic pleural mesothelioma in January 2023.
Long worked at the Dillingham ship repair yard on Swan Island, Ore., from 1972 to 1985. The case eventually went to trial.
Long called as experts Arnold Brody, Ph.D., a pathologist and cell biologist and professor emeritus at Tulane University School of Medicine Department of Pathology, New Orleans; Allan Smith, an epidemiologist from Berkeley, Calif.; Steven Haber, a pulmonologist from Houston; Steven Compton, a materials scientist from MVA Consultants in Atlanta; Jerome Spear, a certified industrial hygienist at Spear & Lancaster LLC in Magnolia, Texas; and Barry Castleman, Sc.D., an expert in state of the art from Baltimore.
The jury found that Long was exposed to asbestos from a John Crane product and that the product was in a defective condition.
That defect, according to the jury, was a substantial factor in Long’s mesothelioma. The jury then found that John Crane was negligent and that its negligence was a substantial factor in causing Long’s mesothelioma.
The jury awarded Long $33 million in noneconomic damages.
Read the full decision here.
