ILL WORKER WINS DAMAGES IN ASBESTOS CASE

Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 09/24/1993
Page: P3A
Headline: ILL WORKER WINS DAMAGES IN ASBESTOS CASE
Byline: BOB SCHWARZ

A Putnam County jury has awarded a man and his wife more than $3 million in asbestos-related damages.

Following a two-week trial, jurors awarded the money Thursday to Benjamin Baker, now 64 and battling cancer, and his wife Anna Baker The jury ordered Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp. to pay damages
of: $420,000 in past and future medical expenses; $99,000 in lost wages; $500,000 for pain and suffering; $500,000 for mental anguish; $500,000 to Mrs. Baker for loss of companionship; and $1 million in
punitive damages.

The Bakers live in Fairmont, where Benjamin Baker worked as a machine operator in a bottle-making plant. He suffers from cancer on the outer lining of the lungs, which he contended was caused by
asbestos insulation in the plant, overhead pipes, and the machine he worked on. Owens-Corning made and sold the asbestos-containing insulation.

"He's pretty much ravaged by the affects of this,' said Putnam County Circuit Court Judge Clarence Watt, who presided over the case.

Owens-Corning argued that a worker in a bottle factory had little exposure to the asbestos. Baker's lawyers, Bill Schwartz and Jim Humphreys from Charleston and Jackie Rion of the law firm Motley,
Ness from Charleston, S.C., presented testimony that Baker suffered from a cancer caused only by asbestos.

"We're happy and we feel justice has been served,' Schwartz said. "The significance is that a jury found that a glass-plant operator was just as exposed as an insulator.'

Baker has been undergoing chemotherapy since being diagnosed with the cancer a year ago. "He's a man of great humor and strength, which the doctors say may explain why he has survived as long as he
has,' Schwartz said.