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Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. v. Garrett8/28/1996
opriate, including the submission of written questions susceptible of brief answers or of written forms of the several special findings that might properly be made under the pleadings and evidence. The court shall instruct the jury as may be necessary to enable it to make its findings upon each issue."
Rule 2-522 gives the trial court the authority to design submissions to the jury as well as format the jury's findings. Maryland appellate courts have observed before that special verdicts are often useful in cases with multiple parties or issues. See, e.g., Kruszewski v. Holz, 265 Md. 434, 446, 290 A.2d 534, 541 (1972); Sun Cab Co. v. Walston, 15 Md. App. 113, 161, 289 A.2d 804, 829-830 (1972), aff'd, 267 Md. 559, 298 A.2d 391 (1973); Food Fair Stores, Inc. v. Lascola, 31 Md. App. 153, 161-65, 355 A.2d 757, 762-64 (1976). The defendants have presented nothing beyond conclusory allegations that the verdict sheets were prejudicial, which is certainly not sufficient for us to find that the trial judge in this case overstepped his authority in their design. We cannot accept the circular argument that the verdicts against direct defendants and for cross-defendants were "proof" of prejudice. We do not find it illogical that certain defendants were found to be directly liable in one plaintiff's case and not liable as cross-defendants in another plaintiff's case. The scenario is utterly plausible. Moreover, we simply do not grasp how combining the issues of substantial factor causation and an ultimate finding of negligence was "confusing" to the jury or prevented them from answering with "specificity."
It appears quite plain from the jury verdicts that the plaintiffs carried their burden of persuasion as to direct defendants, but the defendants as cross-plaintiffs did not carry their burden of persuasion as to cross-defendants. Defendants may not like the outcome of the jury deliberations, but they have not demonstrated prejudice. The trial judge's refusal to grant a new trial on the cross-claims was not an abuse of discretion.
C. Legal Sufficiency of Evidence of OI's Liability in the Hohman Case
We now turn to the question of the legal sufficiency of the evidence that OI Kaylo was a substantial contributing factor in Mr. Hohman's mesothelioma.
A brief review of the facts will be helpful. In the late 1940's, OI began manufacture of Kaylo. Sometime in 1953, OI turned over the distribution responsibilities for the Kaylo line to its subsidiary OCF. In April of 1958, OI stopped manufacturing asbestos products altogether and sold its Kaylo product line to OCF.
William Hohman, who worked at the Conoco facility in Baltimore City from April of 1952 until his retirement in 1986, was what we have termed a "bystander," in that he did not work directly with the asbestos products but was in the vicinity of where such products were used. In order for Hohman to have a legally sufficient cause of action against OI, he must prove that OI products were a substantial causative factor in his illness and ultimate death. We stated what has come to be known as the "frequency, regularity, proximity" test for substantial factor causation in Eagle-Picher Indus., Inc. v. Balbos:
"Whether the exposure of any given bystander to any particular supplier's product will be legally sufficient to permit a finding of substantial-factor causation is fact specific to each case. The finding involves the interrelationship between the use of a defendant's product at the workplace and the activities of the plaintiff at the workplace. This requires an understanding of the physical characteristics of the workplace and of the relationship between the activities of the direct users
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