N.Y. Jury Awards $5 Million in Case Against Foster Wheeler

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- New York jurors have awarded $5 million to a former U.S. Navy boiler technician, rejecting a defendant's argument that because it did not affix the asbestos-containing insulation to the boilers, it did not owe the plaintiff a duty to warn. Pokorney v. Foster Wheeler, No. 2006-3087 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Onondaga Cty.).

The Onondaga County Supreme Court jury reached the verdict July 10 after 12 hours of deliberations, sources told HarrisMartin.

The two-week trial was presided over by Judge James W. McCarthy.

Jurors broke down the award into $2.5 million for past pain and suffering and $2.5 …