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Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. v. Garrett8/28/1996
mostly in the boiler and engine rooms of Coast Guard cutters, exposed daily to asbestos products:
"Q. When you were working in the engine and boiler rooms, Mr. Scruggs, did the dust from the asbestos products get in your hair?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did it get in your nose?
A. Yes.
Q. Did it get in your mouth?
A. Some of it did.
Q. What did your clothes look like at the end of any particular day?
A. Dusty. My face was dusty, my glasses were dusty, my hair was dusty."
Mr. Scruggs testified at trial that the asbestos dust came in part from the daily sawing and cutting of OCF Kaylo, an insulation available in block and pipecovering form, in the boiler rooms in which he worked. Kaylo was described thus in a 1956 marketing brochure produced by OCF:
"Kaylo(R) Block Insulation, a white, rigid hydrous calcium silicate heat insulation developed and manufactured by Owens-Illinois Glass Company and distributed nationally by Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, effectively insulates indoor and outdoor heated equipment up to 1200 [degrees] F. Kaylo Block Insulation offers excellent heat insulation, high strength and moisture resistance to a variety of high temperature installations. A chemically-reacted material, it contains asbestos fibers for reinforcement."
Kaylo contains approximately 15% asbestos. Jerry Helser, quality control supervisor at the Kaylo plant in Berlin, New Jersey in the 1960's, testified that asbestos fibers were critical to the production of Kaylo. Asbestos served as a reinforcement, or a bonding agent, to hold together in solid block form the variety of minerals which, when combined and heated under pressure in an autoclaving process, reacted to form the hydrous calcium silicate. The dust created by cutting or sawing Kaylo contained asbestos fibers which could be inhaled.
Mr. Scruggs and a co-worker, Donald Kaiser, also testified to seeing PH trucks at the shipyard delivering asbestos materials, including Kaylo and the products of a number of the cross-claim defendants.
After 1972 the areas of the ships where asbestos pipecovering was used were off-limits to all workers except those who actually installed the pipecovering. Mr. Scruggs continued working for the Navy in a series of office jobs until December of 1992, three months after he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma. He died during the trial, after testifying in a videotaped deposition and in the courtroom.
C. Ralph Garrett
In 1942, Ralph Garrett worked full-time for approximately a year as a pipecoverer for Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock, using a variety of asbestos pipecovering, block, and cement insulation products on the ships in the yard. In his videotaped deposition shown to the jury, Mr. Garrett described the dust created in using the block insulation:
"Q. Mr. Garrett, do you recall what was -- what type of work was done with this asbestos pipecovering that you have referred to? How was it used?
A. Well, it was put on pipes and joints of any such kind, which would be put mud around that. And if it were a big joint, they would put pieces of block on it and put the mud around it to hold, make it a form. And you would have to saw this stuff, and it would make you look like a snowman. That would keep you white all day long, from the time you got there until you left.
Q. Mr. Garrett, do I understand that you, yourself, sawed this insulation?
A. Oh, yes."
(Emphasis added.) During that time, according to his testimony and that of a co-worker William Moody, he used Kaylo pip
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