Landry & Swarr announces a $7.75 million verdict in favor of a deceased mesothelioma victim in a trial against a petrochemical plant.

New Orleans, Louisiana, November 8, 2019

On November 8, 2019, the attorneys at Landry & Swarr won a $7.75 million verdict for the adult children of a retired chemical engineer who lost his life to mesothelioma at the age of 86.  He was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma at the age of 85 and suffered greatly the remainder of his life.  Dr. Gaddy’s mesothelioma resulted from asbestos exposures decades before his diagnosis.  At an Ethyl Corporation petrochemical plant in Baton Rouge, he worked with and around others working with asbestos, and predominantly in the sodium and pilot areas of the plant.  This job was his first job as a chemical engineer; he worked there from approximately 1955 through 1959. Prior to that job, Dr. Gaddy worked for a summer as a pipe-fitter’s helper at an International Paper mill in Springhill, Louisiana. Owens-Illinois manufactured asbestos-containing pipe insulation that the jury saw as an asbestos exposure source at International Paper’s mill.      

A unanimous federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana found Ethyl Corporation, International Paper Company and Owens-Illinois liable for the total verdict of $7.75 million.       

“The unanimous jury recognized Dr. Gaddy for the exemplary human being he was and awarded him damages commensurate with the emotional distress, pain and suffering he experienced from mesothelioma.  Had Dr. Gaddy’s employers acted responsibly, he would not have had this suffering,” said attorney Matthew Clark of Landry & Swarr.