Mesothelioma

Sixty percent of the total — or $5.55 million — is to be paid by John Crane Inc., a multinational company that manufactured gaskets and sealants made with asbestos.

Garlock Sealing Technologies, a Palmyra, N.Y., company that competed with John Crane in making the same products, had already settled for an undisclosed amount with Oney before the case went to trial.

Archibald Wallace, a Richmond attorney who represented John Crane Inc., could not immediately be reached last Thursday.

The company is expected to appeal the jury verdict.

Attorneys for the Oney family said between 1963 and 1973, Vaughn Oney was sometimes in contact with asbestos daily.

He retired in 1994, in his early fifties and, according to attorneys representing the family, in good health.

But He was diagnosed in 2004.

"He needed an incredible amount of narcotics to endure the pain every day,'' said Robert Hatten, who represented Oney.

"The last six weeks of his life, he was in horrific condition.'' The verdict comes less than one year after the court awarded $10.4 million to the family of Buddy Jones, another Newport News shipyard worker who died of the disease.

"The asbestos industry knew that asbestos fibers could kill you,'' Hatten said.

"They knew how to prevent it, they knew how to test for it, they knew how...

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