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Miller v. National Bulk Carriers3/10/2000
The plaintiff Creighton E. Miller, administrator of the estate of Matthew Williams, deceased, appeals from a summary judgment in favor of the defendants Arco Marine, Inc.; Atlantic Richfield Company ("Arco"); Unocal Corporation; National Bulk Carriers, Inc. ("N.B.C."); and Chevron USA, Inc. ("Chevron"), in a wrongful-death action. Williams died in 1994, at age 71, of aspiration pneumonitis secondary to multiple myeloma. Williams had been a merchant mariner, and he had sailed primarily aboard tanker vessels from 1945 to 1981; Miller alleged that Williams had developed multiple myeloma as a consequence of shipboard exposure to benzene and benzene-containing products aboard ships owned by the defendants named above. The defendants moved for a summary judgment, supporting their motion by deposition testimony indicating that Williams most likely had not had a sufficient exposure to benzene aboard any vessel owned by the defendants and that there is no general acceptance in any scientific field of the proposition that benzene exposure is associated with multiple myeloma in humans. Williams died before this action was filed, and no testimony or other record exists to indicate what exposures, if any, he experienced aboard vessels belonging to Arco Marine, Arco, Unocal, and N.B.C. Therefore, the trial court properly entered the summary judgment for those four defendants.
Miller offered the following evidence in opposition to the summary-judgment motion insofar as it related to the defendant Chevron:
1) Williams served aboard the vessel Gulfvictor from November 26, 1956, to February 1, 1957, and Miller identified Rudolph Foreman as a person who could testify about Williams's exposures aboard that vessel. However, Foreman was discharged from the Gulfvictor on November 26, 1956, the date Williams boarded the ship; thus, they never served on the vessel together, and Foreman did not provide any evidence regarding any exposures Williams had to benzene aboard that vessel.
2) Williams served aboard the vessel Gulfmills in 1959 and 1960. Miller identified Israel Rangel as a witness who could describe Williams's exposures aboard that vessel. However, Rangel did not remember Williams, and he did not remember any cargoes that were aboard the vessel or where the vessel went during that time that could have exposed mariners to benzene or benzene-containing products. Therefore, Rangel was unable to identify any exposures that Williams had aboard the Gulfmills.
3) Williams served aboard the vessel Gulfjaguar in 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962, and Miller identified Pete Sandifer, Isidore Thibeault, and Harvey Moss as witnesses who could describe Williams's exposure aboard that vessel. None of these witnesses was able to describe any exposures to benzene or benzene-containing products that Williams experienced aboard that vessel.
4) Williams served aboard the vessel Gulfking in 1963 and 1964, and Miller identified Robert Alexander as a witness who could describe Williams's exposures aboard that vessel. Alexander described himself as a friend of Williams, recalled seeing Williams on that vessel, recalled that the vessel carried aviation fuel, refined gasoline, and crude oil, and that the crewmembers were exposed to cargo vapors during loading and unloading. He could not recall whether the tanks were cleaned on that vessel while he and Williams were aboard.
5) Williams served aboard the vessel Gulfqueen in 1964, and Miller identified Wilfred Lambier as a witness who could describe Williams's exposures aboard that vessel. Lambier did not recall Williams and could not describe any of Williams's exposures aboard that vessel.
6) Williams served aboard the ve
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