Jury awards $7.25 million in asbestos case
A man who worked at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was diagnosed with cancer decades later, then died.
A COMMON PLEAS jury has awarded $7.25 million to the estate and family of a man who was exposed to asbestos when he worked at the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard more than 40 years ago and later died of cancer.
Edward Merwitz, of Langhorne, Bucks County, was diagnosed with mesothelioma - a cancer in the lining surrounding the lungs - in January 2010. He died six months later at age 62.
On Wednesday, a jury "found liability among a variety of companies that sell electrical wires, pumps and motors, which are not your typical suppliers of asbestos," according to partner Lawrence R. Cohan of the Center City firm Anapol Schwartz, who represented the Merwitz family.
Cohan said all but one of the nine defendants had settled before or during the trial, leaving the company formerly known as Rockbestos as the sole defendant at the time of the verdict.
While there have been other cases involving people who worked at the naval yard who developed mesothelioma and were compensated, this was the first time Rockbestos was "hit with a verdict like this on all issues," Cohan said.
Connecticut-based Rockbestos, now RSCC Wire & Cable LLC, had offered $2,500 to settle the case before trial, but now it will pay its share of the verdict, or about $805,500, Cohan added.
Robert P. Corbin, the lawyer for Rockbestos, did not return an email seeking comment.
Merwitz worked at the naval shipyard from 1965 to 1970 on its warships. He is survived by his wife and two adult daughters. Cohan said the U.S. Navy was not named as a defendant because it is essentially immune from lawsuits.
The companies that settled in the case were Buffalo Pumps, Westinghouse, Blackmer Pumps, General Electric Co., Greene Tweed & Co. Inc., Square D Co., Warren Pumps and DeLaval Turbines. Their settlement amounts are confidential, Cohan said.