Kirk Bernard's Welding Rod Injury Law Review

Six and a half million dollar verdict Against Miss. Nursing Home Tossed Over Juror's Statements

By KEVIN MCVEIGH, ESQ., Andrews Publications Staff Writer

The Mississippi Supreme Court has reversed a $6.5 million verdict awarded to the family of a deceased nursing home resident against the facility's owner and corporate parents, finding the trial court failed to investigate allegations of juror misconduct.

In a 7-2 opinion the high court said a juror allegedly told fellow jurors during the trial that the same facility neglected her relative, but she did not disclose that information to the court during voir dire.

The trial court's refusal to investigate the allegations, which were raised by another juror after the verdict, jeopardized the fairness of the trial, the state Supreme Court held.

The family of Charles Edwards filed the lawsuit in the Leflore County Circuit Court against Mariner Health Care and its subsidiaries, including National Heritage Realty Inc., which owned the Greenwood Health & Rehabilitation Center.

According to the high court's opinion, Edwards suffered from severe mental retardation, autism, seizures, a swallowing disorder and chronic pneumonia. He entered the Greenwood center in December 1994 at age 40.

In 1997, after Edwards' refusal to eat led to a significant weight loss, Greenwood staff members inserted a feeding tube into his stomach. However, his body eventually stopped processing nutrients from the tube, and he lost 22 pounds. Despite this, Greenwood never ordered intravenous feeding, the opinion said.

Edwards died Feb. 16, 2002, from pneumonia-related cardiac arrest. The high court said the pneumonia resulted from volume depletion, a condition caused by lack of fluid in the body's cells.

Edwards' family alleged in their wrongful-death and negligence lawsuit that Greenwood's failure to start IV feeding caused his death.

In December 2003 a jury awarded the family $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages

Read the rest at Findlaw

Second Major Blow To Welding Industry In Nine Days

NEW YORK, Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- In the second major verdict against the U.S. welding industry in little more than a week, a New York State appeals court on Dec. 29th affirmed the first-ever jury finding that asbestos-containing welding rods, sold in the billions up to the early 1980's, had caused lung cancer and mesothelioma, Attorney Jerome H. Block of the nationally known mass toxic tort law firm of Levy Phillips and Konigsberg, LLP announced.
The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, in a published decision, upheld the July 2003 jury verdict in favor of, Angel Gomez, who died following the trial, and the late Daniel Tucker. Both men worked with and around asbestos-containing welding rods. The jury awarded Gomez a total of approximately $3.19 million against Lincoln Electric Company ("Lincoln"), reduced 25 percent since Gomez was a cigarette smoker. Tucker's estate was awarded a total of approximately $3.5 million split between Lincoln and Hobart Brothers Company ("Hobart").

Lincoln, publicly traded, and Hobart, a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly traded Illinois Tool Works, Inc., "had argued that their asbestos product was different and incapable of causing lung cancer and mesothelioma. The jury rejected these arguments, and now their verdict has been unanimously upheld by the appellate court," Block said.

On Dec. 20th an Illinois appellate court upheld a 2001, $1 million negligence and product liability award against Lincoln, Hobart, and Airco/The BOC Group, Inc. After a four-week trial a jury found that manganese fumes from the defendants' welding rods caused central nervous system injury resulting in the plaintiff's Parkinson's disease.

The welding rods at issue in the Gomez and Tucker cases, known by their American Welding Society Classification "6010," were and continue to be a top-selling, all-purpose welding rod. Up to the early 1980s, these rods were coated with a mixture containing 5% to 15% asbestos, according to trial testimony. "We proved that asbestos from the coating of these rods would be released in the air and breathed in by workers like Mr. Gomez and Mr. Tucker who had no idea that asbestos could kill them," Block explained. For at least a half century, from the 1930's through the early 1980's, Lincoln manufactured billions of asbestos-containing welding rods, which were commonly used in industry, Block noted. In addition to welders, others who worked around them were endangered by these rods, Block added.

Case Filed As: Christine Wiegman, Individually and as the Administratrix of the Estate of Daniel Tucker, Plaintiff-Respondent, v A C & S, Inc., et al., Defendants, The Lincoln Electric Company, et al., Defendants-Appellants.; Angel Gomez, Plaintiff-Respondent, v A C & S, Inc., et al., Defendants, The Lincoln Electric Company, Defendant-Appellant.

Florida Under Pressure To Renew Personal Injury Insurance Legislation

Tallahassee, FL (AHN) - If lawmakers don't act quickly, Florida will be the only state in the union that would not require drivers to have bodily injury liability coverage.

Florida's Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said on Wednesday that if a current law is allowed to expire, the estimated 20 percent of the state's residents who have inadequate or no health insurance would be rendered unable to pay their bills if injured in a traffic accident.

"That's serious," Sink said. Should the measure expire drivers will only be required to carry liability insurance for property damage.

Currently the state's requirement for personal injury protection, or PIP, will automatically expire Oct. 1 unless the legislature passes a law to continue it.

Read the full article here.

Personal Injury Feed

I Want to Fight for Mike

I read a story in the paper about Mike Reed. He's lived in Seattle his entire life, His neighbor and friends admire him He works long hours. At night he coaxes his kids’ hockey team.

Mike is a welder.

He can fabricate anything using all kinds of metals. Mike’s two main tools are his arc welder and a long strip of metal, which he melts into the joint of two large sheets of steel. That long, thin, round strip of metal contains manganese.

And it is killing him.

You see, welding with manganese rods gives off toxic fumes, which our friend Mike inhales. Every day. For five years. Or ten. Or thirty.

One day, Mike notices his hands are shaking. His feet are dragging. He stares at people. He cuts himself shaving. He has Manganism. Or Parkinsonism. He is sick, and permanently injured. He needs help. He needs a good doctor. And, suddenly, he needs income, because he can no longer weld.

To make things worse - the manufacturer of those manganese strips knew since the 1930's that their products’ fumes would hurt Mike - and other welders. But the manufacturer did not tell Mike - - or his employer. In fact, the manufacturer, along with the other rod manufacturers, allegedly knew the problem and covered it up. For decades.

Welders Show Elevated Rate of Parkinson Symptoms

On Reuturs, "Welders Show Elevated Rate of Parkinson Symptoms" by Amy Norton. Here is an excerpt:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Welders may have a higher-than-average rate of Parkinson's disease symptoms, the results of a new study suggest.

Researchers found that among more than 1,400 welders from Alabama, the prevalence of Parkinson-like symptoms, including tremor, muscle rigidity and slowed movement, was 7 to 10 times higher than the norm for the general population.

The findings, based on a group of mostly male welders between the ages of 40 and 69 years, are published in the journal Neurology.

Read the rest

Asbestos lawsuits create U.S. legal crisis

Houston Chronicle: "Asbestos lawsuits create U.S. legal crisis," by Mike Tolson--

Burdened by 48,000 asbestos lawsuits, Kelly-Moore wants to prove to a jury that Union Carbide lied to it in the 1960s and '70s about the safety of asbestos. Company executives say its survival may rest on its verdict.
Kelly-Moore's David-and-Goliath assault on Union Carbide and its deep pockets is being widely watched because of the size of the damage claim — about $1.4 billion — and the precedent it could set. Reduced to basics, however, it is one more front in the war over a mineral that for much of the last century was viewed as a godsend.

Pfizer Says Bextra May Increase Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

Pfizer Says Bextra May Increase Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
Source: PR Newswire
Published: October 15, 2004
Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, on Friday warned doctors that its arthritis drug Bextra might increase the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attack or stroke, in coronary bypass surgery patients.

The news comes just two weeks after Merck pulled its arthritis drug Vioxx from all worldwide markets after a study confirmed that it increases a patients' risk of heart attack or stroke.

Bextra and Vioxx are members of the Cox-2 inhibitor class of drugs, which are used for the reduction of pain and inflammation caused by arthritis.

The company also updated Bextra's warning label to include information regarding the risk of a very rare but serious skin reaction called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. In a press release, Pfizer said this risk exists with Bextra primarily within the first two weeks of therapy and, while very rare, at a reported rate greater than other COX-2 products, such as Celebrex.

Bextra was approved and introduced in the U.S. market in 2001.

Comes courtesy of Legal News

Trial Begins for Welder Who Contracted Parkinsonism

On Yahoo Finance -- "Trial Begins for Welder Who Contracted Parkinsonism" about Ronald Presler, whose lawyer has filed a complaint against Lincoln Electric Company and Hobart Brothers company. They will argue:
" ... that these companies' failure to properly warn of the health hazards their products present caused the victim to contract a painful and permanently debilitating disease.
Mr. Ronald Presler worked as a welder from 1966-1997. After many years of inhaling dangerously high levels of manganese fumes from welding rods, Mr. Presler was diagnosed with Parkinsonism. Symptoms are virtually identical to Parkinson's disease, including tremors, rigidity, difficulty walking, slurred speech and facial masking.

"These manufacturers destroyed Mr. Presler's life," said John Neese, an attorney from Williams Bailey. "Sadly, Mr. Presler's case is not unique. There are literally thousands of welders out there who worked hard all their lives, took pride in their profession and now are having to suffer with this horrible disease."

Findlaw Latest News on Welding Rod Injuries

Findlaw features some of the latest news they have on welding rod injuries. They also have a lot of information on three pages here. And some of the legal issues are explained here