 |
 |
Ailing Plaintiff Wins $1 Million Award From Jury BY BRIAN BRUEGGEMANN Posted on Wed, Oct. 29, 2003 A Madison County jury awarded $1 million Tuesday to a Collinsville man who claimed he developed a disease like Parkinson's from working around welding fumes. A few similar cases have been tried in the United States, but this was the first to win a judgment. The same case in June ended with a hung jury. The plaintiff, 65-year-old Larry Elam, claimed he developed a Parkinson's-type disease at age 57 because he welded and worked around welders at Union Electric in Missouri. He sued BOC Group, Hobart Brothers and Lincoln Electric, manufacturers of welding rods. With a hand shaking from tremors, Elam thanked each juror as he or she left the courtroom. "The only thing I can say is 'thanks' to the jurors," he said afterward. Doctors who testified for Elam during a three-week trial suggested a link between welding fumes and the onset of Parkinson's-type disease. Experts for the defense contradicted that. Juror Patricia Freeman of Alton said five jurors initially wanted a defense verdict. "It was difficult. Not everybody agreed," Freeman said. "There was a lot of compromise." Elam's attorney asked for a $2.3 million judgment. Freeman said she's not completely convinced that welding fumes cause Parkinson's, but it's suspicious. "I don't think there was enough information given out. We had to work with what was presented to us," she said. "From listening to it, there's a good step toward finding out, but it needs to be studied more." Jurors began deliberating Monday and reached the verdict Tuesday afternoon, about two hours after informing Associate Judge Ralph Mendelsohn they doubted they could reach a unanimous decision. Mendelsohn asked the jury to deliberate more. Elam's attorney, Bob Bosslet, said jurors didn't need to find scientific proof of a link between welding and the disease. He said the burden of proof in a civil case is whether a claim is more likely than not, as opposed to a criminal case where the burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. "A definite scientific or medical certainty does not exist," Bosslet said. Defense attorney Pat Gloor, when asked what the verdict means to the industry, said: "I think at this point it probably means nothing." He declined further comment. Bosslet said he has a few similar cases pending, but he couldn't estimate how many other welders may be in a situation to sue. The United States has about 1 million welders. A consortium of plaintiff lawyers has been pouring money into a study on welding and Parkinson's-type diseases. One doctor who has worked on the study for a fee of $10,000 per day testified that of 20,000 welders screened so far, about 2,500 have a Parkinson's-type disease. This is the second time Elam's case has gone to trial. A mistrial was declared in June when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict after four days of deliberations. SOURCE: Belleville News-Democrat, IL http://www.belleville.com/mld/newsdemocrat/7127372.htm * * * Reference: Jury Awards $1 Million In Welder's Suit http://neuro-mancer.mgh.harvard.edu/ubb/Forum71/HTML/009080.html Welders Law Suit http://neuro-mancer.mgh.harvard.edu/ubb/Forum71/HTML/008063.html Manganese and Parkinson's http://www.manganese-exposure-lawsuit.com/html/parkinson.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn