In a sign of changing times at the Mississippi Supreme Court, the court’s justices by a 5-2 verdict threw out a much-criticized $150 million award to six asbestos claimants whom defense attorneys said were hardly sick at all (Feb. 23, 2004). “The Holmes County jury awarded identical amounts of $25 million each to the six, despite ‘different work histories, different exposures and different diagnoses,’ Justice George C. Carlson Jr. wrote…. Justices Chuck Easley and James Graves dissented without writing separate opinions. Justices Mike Randolph and Oliver Diaz Jr. did not participate.” The court had been known for its willingness to approve unusual jury awards, but voters in the Magnolia State recently defeated the trial-lawyer-backed chief justice in his bid for re-election.
The ruling was also a huge victory for the 3M company, whose masks the plaintiff’s lawyers had assailed as insufficiently protective (see Sept. 25 for many details), and which had chosen to appeal the $150 million verdict (other defendants settled); the six plaintiffs “testified they hardly had worn the 3M masks”, and, wrote Carlson, “no plaintiff provided any evidence that he was exposed to asbestos while wearing a 3M product.” (Jerry Mitchell, “$150M injury ruling tossed”, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jan. 21).
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