“Insufficient evidence as a matter of law.” This language, contained in a brief one paragraph opinion in which New York’s highest court affirmed an appellate decision to set aside a jury verdict in favor of plaintiffs, describes the court’s rationale for determining that the plaintiff failed to prove her claims under the state’s jurisprudence. In Juni v. A.O. Smith Water Prods. Co., et al., Mary Juni pursued claims on behalf of her deceased husband, Arthur Juni, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Mr. Juni spent over 25 years working as a mechanic on automobiles manufactured by defendant Ford Motor Company, including work with brakes and clutches (“friction products”).
The plaintiff introduced evidence at trial that the chrysotile asbestos-containing automotive component parts utilized by Mr. Juni during the course of his automotive work was the cause of his mesothelioma. Ford, while not disputing the presence of chrysotile asbestos in its parts, submitted expert testimony that demonstrated the chrysotile asbestos contained in the friction products would have undergone a chemical transformation while subjected to high temperatures during the manufacture and use in vehicles, thus converting the asbestos into a benign substance called forsterite, which does not cause mesothelioma.
The jury found in favor of Mrs. Juni, but the trial court set aside the verdict against Ford, reasoning that the evidence was legally insufficient to support the verdict because plaintiff’s experts failed to refute testimony provided by Ford’s experts that chrysotile asbestos in friction products is converted to forsterite and rendered non-toxic.
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