Mansion House at Valley Forge

1992.04.11 New York Times L

COMPANY NEWS; Asbestos Award is $30 Million
Published April 11, 1992
The Keene Corporation, an aeropace materials company based in Rockville Centre, L.I.,
and a former contractor have been ordered to pay $30 million to seven former workers in
its power plant who suffer from asbestos-related illnesses, lawyers said yesterday.
A jury in New York Stat4e Supreme Court awarded the payment to the former employees on
Wednesday, the lawyers said. The case stems from Keene's acquisition in 1968 of
Baldwin-Ehret-Hill Incl, which sold thermal insulation made with asbestos up until 1972.
The other defendant in the case, the robert A. Keasby Company, had been one of the state's
largest power-plant contractors from the late 1920s to the early 1970s.
The seven lawsuits, which were tried jointly, were considered tet cases. Justice Helen
Freedman of New York State Supreme Court, who is presiding over all New York City
asbestos cases, had ruled that the jury's findings on liability issues would be binding on the
200 remaining power-plant cases.
So far, 670 such cases have been settled in full, and all but 3 of about 450 defendants have
settled in other asbestos cases.
Andrew Berry, one of the lawyers representing Keene, yesterday called the 430 million
verdict "outrageous" and "way out of line" with the payments awarded in similar cases,
which have averaged 4300,000 to $400,000 for each plaintiff.
One plaintiff in the present case was given $11 million of the $30 million total.
Mr. Berry said Keene, which is also a military contractor, would ask the judge to reduce the
award. If Keene is unsuccessful, it will appeal.
"We trust Justice freedman will exercise her powers to reduce the verdicts as she has done
in the past with other runaway verdit," Mr. Berry said.
The $30 million was awarded in compensatory damages. Trials will be held later to
determine punitive damages, said Michael Roberts, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers. Punitive
damages would not be covered by the companies' insurance policies.
Mr. Roberts said the defendants were held responsible for negligence, recklessness and
conspiracy for asbestos work and asbestos supplied to power houses owned by Consolidated
Edison of New York Inc. and the Long Island Lighting Company and other job sites from the
1940s to the 1970s.

Found by Herb Fry. Digitized by Heidi Sproat 11/06/2022.