$2.25 million awarded in asbestos death
Jury finds reckless disregard for safety by Fisher Controls in case of Falls man
A Buffalo jury has ordered a St. Louis-based supplier of industrial control valves and control systems to pay the estate of a Niagara Falls man $2.25 million for the former Hooker Chemical repairman’s death from cancer, court officials confirmed Wednesday.
Following a six-week trial, the jury held Fisher Controls financially liable for the asbestos-caused mesothelioma that killed Ronald Drabczyk. He died at 70 on Nov. 29, 2005, nine years after his retirement from the Niagara Falls plant.
Drabczyk, from 1970 through 1988, regularly repaired valves manufactured by Fisher Controls that contained asbestos gaskets and packing, trial attorneys said.
The jury found Fisher Controls had acted with reckless disregard for Drabczyk’s workplace safety, making it 100 percent financially responsible for his painful death under New York law, court officials said.
Court officials said the verdict, which includes a $750,000 punitive damages award, marks both the first time Fisher Controls has been found liable for using asbestos in its products and the first punitive damages award in a New York State asbestos case in more than 20 years.
Trial attorneys Jordan Fox of the New York firm of Belluck & Fox, Michael P. Joyce of Boston, Mass., and Cherie L. Peterson of the Buffalo firm of Lipsitz, Green, Scime and Cambria said they anticipate an appeal by Fisher Controls in an effort to cut down the jury total.
During the jury trial before State Supreme Court Justice John P. Lane, attorneys for Drabczyk established that officials of Fisher Controls, a subsidiary of Emerson Electric Co., were aware of the dangers of asbestos in the workplace as early as 1946 but failed to place any warnings on their products.
“The jury’s verdict confirms that this corporation acted in a negligent and reckless manner in selling its valves without ever warning of the dangers associated with the asbestos-containing products used in these valves,” Fox said.
“Although we cannot bring Mr. Drabczyk back, we hope this verdict will send a message that these actions will not be tolerated,” added Fox, whose New York City-based firm is a major litigator of asbestos and mesothelioma cases across the nation.
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