Miss. court orders new trial in silica case

The family of Robert Eastman claimed he sustained irreparable lung damage from silicosis caused by inhaling sand at his workplace.

A Warren County jury ruled for Eastman in 2009. Eastman died while the case was moving from post-trial motions to appeal.

Eastman worked at LeTourneau in Vicksburg for 25 years. The lawsuit said Mississippi Valley Silica failed to warn of the potential harm that could be caused to users in sandblasting operation.

In his lawsuit, Eastman said he used sand provided by Mississippi Silica and the company knew that the silica that it sold to LeTourneau could cause incurable silicosis if inhaled in sufficient quantities.

In oral arguments in February, Mississippi Valley Silica said the trial judge declined to let the company argue to the jury that LeTourneau bore more blame because it failed to protect Eastman from a product everyone knew could be dangerous.

As a supplier, Mississippi Valley Silica had no duty to warn the company about what it already knew — that employees cannot breathe silica dust without proper care being taken.

The Supreme Court, in a 7-3 decision Thursday, said that while Mississippi Valley Silica proposed a flawed jury instruction to the judge, there was no reason for the trial judge to deny it outright.

“The trial judge committed reversible error by refusing, rather than reforming, the jury instruction,” Presiding Justice Jess Dickinson wrote for the majority.

Justice Anthony Chandler, in a dissent joined by two other justices, said the trial judge should not be held at fault for a jury instruction improperly written by Mississippi Valley Silica. He said the trial court should “not be held in error for refusing a jury instruction that is an incorrect statement of the law.”