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Jury awards asbestos widow $5.5 million BY PETER DUJARDIN Daily Press 757-247-4749 April 11, 2007, 7:30 PM EDT NEWPORT NEWS -- A Newport News jury on Wednesday awarded $5.55 million to the widow of a former shipyard worker who died of asbestos exposure while working to build aircraft carriers. Vaughn Oney, a machinist who worked at Newport News Shipbuilding for 31 years between 1963 and 1994, died last November of mesothelioma, a cancer triggered by exposure to asbestos fibers at the yard decades earlier. Kay Oney, Vaughn's wife of 43 years and his high school sweetheart, had to watch Oney struggle with the cancer for two years between the time he was first diagnosed with it to the time he died. "It was some of the worst suffering that I ever listened to," said Robert Hatten, a Newport News attorney who handled the case for the firm of Patten, Wornom, Hatten and Diamonstein. "He needed an incredible amount of narcotics to endure the pain every day," Hatten said. "It was intractable pain, pain so high that narcotics can't control it. The last six weeks of his life he was in horrific condition." After two days of deliberations, the seven-member jury determined that Oney was entitled to $9.25 million from two asbestos manufacturers. The jury decided that 60 percent of that amount, or $5.55 million, should be paid by John Crane Inc., which made asbestos gaskets and sealants for Navy aircraft carriers. The other 40 percent, or $3.7 million, was to go to Oney from Garlock Inc., a competitor that made the same parts. But Garlock had settled with Oney for an undisclosed amount before the case went to trial, Hatten said, so the jury effectively determined only the damages against John Crane Inc. John Crane Inc. representatives could not be reached Wednesday evening. But Hatten said the company typically appeals jury verdicts against it.
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