Jury Awards $1.9 million to retired Navy machinist exposed to asbestos

By Brian Cole

Published on March 30, 2006

John Crane, Inc. is a former manufacturer of asbestos containing valve and pump packing and Thorpe Insulation Company is a former producer and supplier of asbestos insulation.

Retired Navy machinist, Charlton Clemmer and his wife, Kay, charged that the companies were negligent and failed to warn workers about the hazards of asbestos exposure. The jury agreed. The jury also found that the products produced by these companies were defectively designed.

Mr. Clemmer was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that is only know to be caused be asbestos exposure, in June 2004. During his service in the Navy from 1952 to 1972, Mr. Clemmer worked as a machinist and dealt with a number of asbestos containing products.

John Crane, Inc. supplied asbestos containing products to the Navy during Mr. Clemmer's career, Thorpe Insulation Company was a large supplier of insulation to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard where the ships Mr. Crane served aboard where repaired.

During the trial, Mr. Clemmer's attorneys showed that the hazards of exposure to asbestos had been known since the 1920s.

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