Alvendia
A two-and-a-half week asbestos trial has finished up the first week of deliberations in Orleans Parish Civil District Court.
Former Avondale shipyard worker Ferdinand Truxillo filed a lawsuit against 28 companies – including General Electric, CBS Corp. and Northrup Grumman – in October 2010.
Of the original 28 defendants, 16 – including CBS – where dismissed before trial.
New Orleans attorneys Roderic Alvendia, J. Bart Kelly III and Jeanne Demarest represent Truxillo.
The lawsuit claims Truxillo was exposed to asbestos while working at Avondale from 1967-1969 and from 1970 to the present.
The suit claims that "dangerously high levels of asbestos fibers escaped into the ambient air of the work place, resulting in petitioner breathing those fibers" while he worked at Avondale.
"Defendants knew or should have known through industry and federal studies ... the existence of which were unknown to petitioner, of the health hazards inherent in the asbestoes-containing products," around Truxillo.
The lawsuit says the defendants were "manufacturers/equipment/sellers/suppliers/distributers/contractors" that worked with asbestos.
The lawsuit claims the defendants are guilty of strict liability, negligence, intentional tort and fraudulent misrepresentation, among other charges.
Orleans Parish Judge Piper Griffin is overseeing this two-week jury trial.
Orleans Parish Case 2010-10951