Plaintiff Wins Welding Trial in Ohio

After more than eight days of deliberations, jurors in the Welding Fume Products Liability Litigation MDL trial have awarded a total of $20.5 million to the plaintiffs in Tamraz, et al. v. Lincoln Electric, et al., in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio

The jury reached the verdict on December 5, 2007, awarding $17.5 million to Jeff Tamraz in compensatory damages and $3 million to his wife, Terry Tamraz, for loss of consortium. The jurors did not award punitive damages.

According to the verdict sheet, defendants Lincoln Electric, Hobart Brothers Co., ESAB Group Inc., BOC Group Inc. and TDY Industries remained in the case at the time of the verdict. The jurors entered their award against all the defendants on the plaintiff's strict liability and negligent failure-to-warn claims but the jurors found for all the defendants on Tamraz’s fraudulent concealment claim.

Plaintiffs Jeff and Terry Tamraz contend that Jeff Tamraz suffers from manganese-induced Parkinsonism as a result of exposure to manganese-containing welding fumes. Tamraz was employed as a welder for 27 years in San Francisco, where he worked on bridges and high rises. In a statement released shortly after the verdict, the welding defendants stressed their position that "reliable scientific studies continue to show no association between exposure to welding fumes and neurological disorders, and the defendants will continue to defend themselves against these baseless claims."

This was the third trial to take place before Judge O’Malley, who oversees the Welding Fume Products Liability Litigation MDL. The first MDL jury found for defendants at the conclusion of the June 2006 in the claims of Ernesto Solis. The second trial involved the claims of two sets of plaintiffs, Donald and Sheila Goforth and Randy and Catherine Quinn. A jury rejected both sets of claims on Nov. 30, 2006, after two days of deliberations.

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