Schenectady jury awards $10M in asbestos case

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

A state Supreme Court jury in Schenectady County awarded more than $10 million in damages to the estate of an Indiana man who died as a result of asbestos traced to a North Country talc mine, the plaintiff’s attorneys said.

The case was tried in Schenectady County because the judge who handles most of the asbestos cases in the Fourth Judicial District, Richard Aulisi, is based in Johnstown and frequently presides in Schenectady, attorneys said.

The six-person jury was seated late last month to hear the case of Richard Chisholm. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a type of cancer, in 2010 and died at age 52 in 2012.

Attorneys for Chisholm’s family traced the cancer back to the late 1970s, when Chisholm worked at a ceramics company in high school and handled asbestos-laden talc mined in Gouverneur. They sued the company that mined and sold the talc, R.T. Vanderbilt, and won a $10.55 million verdict Tuesday.

The family’s attorneys contended the company knew asbestos was in the talc and chose not to warn customers. Chisholm had three children, the youngest born in 1998.

The family was represented by attorneys Donald P. Blydenburgh and Arthur Prystowsky of the New York City law firm of Levy Konigsberg. Blydenburgh said the amount awarded is the largest verdict of its kind issued in upstate New York.

Attorneys representing R.T. Vanderbilt could not be reached for comment. They have 60 days to appeal.

The Schenectady jury came back with its unanimous finding of fault after just 45 minutes of deliberations Tuesday, Blydenburgh said. Their monetary award came just over an hour later.

The Chisholm family attorneys asked for $12 million. They contended he was exposed in high school while working for a small ceramics business outside of Cincinnati. The talc was a main ingredient in the ceramics, and Chisholm was the only one who could lift the 50-pound bags.

Chisholm’s job was to pour the talc and mix the ingredients. He inhaled the talc dust containing the asbestos, his attorneys said. His cancer was diagnosed three decades later.

Central to the case was the lack of warning, Blydenburgh said. He said the company knew of the asbestos and the risks, but chose to ignore it.

“They decided it was better for business reasons not to warn on the bags,” Blydenburgh said.

Testifying at the trial was the owner of the small ceramics company where Chisholm worked. The owner testified that had there been a warning on the bags, he would not have used the product.