$1.8 Million Award Affirmed After Defendant Found Negligent, But Not Liable, for Mesothelioma

NEW ORLEANS - A Louisiana appeals court has affirmed a trial judge's decision to award an asbestos plaintiff nearly $2 million on a judgment notwithstanding a jury verdict where the defendant was found negligent but not responsible for causing the plaintiff's mesothelioma. Torrejon v. Mobil Oil Company, No. 2003-CA-1426 (La. Ct. App., Fourth Cir.).

Ruling that the connection between defendant Mobil Oil Co.'s negligence and plaintiff Joseph Torrejon's exposure to asbestos was reasonably logical, the appeals court held June 2 that the trial court did not err when it granted the JNOV.

Torrejon worked for several years as a merchant …