Jury awards $17.5M to welder for illness

The jury found that the five companies were negligent for not warning the welder.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A federal jury awarded $17.5 million to a welder who sued five companies on claims that he got sick from inhaled fumes, marking the second time in 18 such cases that a verdict has come down on the side of workers.

It’s the first victory since 2003 for welders, who say companies that made the welding products gave them little warning about the dangers of inhaling welding fumes.

Welding companies had previously won 16 of 17 such cases, and their lawyers say they will appeal the jury’s verdict, which came Wednesday after a 12-day trial and more than a week of deliberation.

The nine-person jury in U.S. District Court in Cleveland found that the five companies showed negligence by not warning Jeff Tamraz of the toxicity of manganese in their products.

“We believe this is a turning point,” said John Climaco, one of the lawyers who represent Tamraz and his wife, Terry. “We would hope the manufacturers would take the necessary steps in the future to properly warn welders and take the necessary step to protect them from the manganese hazards in welding fumes.”

Tamraz and other workers have contended that the fumes lead to tremors, headaches and symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. They say that the ultra-fine manganese particles in welding fumes are absorbed in the blood, travel to the brain and cause damage that results in tremors.

Defendants were Cleveland-based Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc.; Troy-based Hobart Bros. Co.; TDY Industries Inc., part of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Technologies Inc.; ESAB Group Inc., a Florence, S.C.-based subsidiary of London’s Charter PLC.; and BOC Group PLC, which was acquired last year by Linde AG of Germany.

The welding companies have said that the amount of manganese in welding fumes is too low to cause harm and that workers who use masks and fans have nothing to worry about.

Medical studies attempting to determine whether there is such a cause-and-effect relationship have been mostly inconclusive.

More than 3,000 lawsuits have been consolidated in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Judge Kathleen O’Malley presided over the Tamraz case and two previous cases.

A spokeswoman for the companies said they are confident the verdict will be overturned on appeal.

“It’s unrealistic to believe that [the companies] will never lose a case,” said Brandy Bergman, a spokeswoman for the defendants. “But losing a case does not change the defendants’ position. They’re going to continue to defend themselves against these baseless claims.”

Tamraz, 51, worked as a welder and iron worker in San Francisco for 27 years, Climaco said. He and his wife live in Oregon.

Besides the $17.5 million for Tamraz, the jury also found that his wife was entitled to damages and set compensation at $3 million.