Jury selection begins in Madison County asbestos case

Jurors were being selected Thursday in a Bolingbrook, Ill.  man’s asbestos lawsuit against John Crane and Crane Company.

Madison County Associate Judge Clarence Harrison’s third-floor courtroom was full of prospective jurors being questioned by a handful of attorneys.

According to the lawsuit filed June 11, 2012, George Hamblet was a laborer from  1961-1963 at the Owens Illinois Plastics Plant in Chicago; as a fireman in the U.S. Navy from 1963-1967 in Illinois, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts and aboard the USS Damato and USS Joseph P. Kennedy; as a laborer at the Argo Corn Refining Plant in Bedford Park, Ill in 1968; as a laborer and fork lift operator at Continental Can Company in Chicago, 1968-1978; and as a shade tree mechanic in the state of Illinois from 1960-1979.

During the course of employment, he was exposed to and inhaled, ingested or otherwise absorbed large amounts of asbestos fibers emanating from certain products he was working with and around, which were manufactured, sold, distributed or installed by the defendants.

On April 2, 2012, Hamblet first learned he had developed mesothelioma, an asbestos-induced disease and the disease was wrongfully caused.

The suit had sought damages from more than 50 other defendants, but on the eve of trial, only John Crane and Crane Company remained as defendants.

Voir dire started at 1 p.m. for what Harrison told the jury pool would be a two-week trial.

Randy Gori and Erin Beavers of Gori Julian & Associates in Edwardsville; and Aaron Heckman and Fletcher Trammel of Bailey Perrin Bailey in Houston, Texas represent the plaintiff.

Nicole Behnen and Leo Chmielewski and Dennis Dobbels, Brandy Harty and Allison Sonneveld of Polsinelli Shughart represent the defense.

Madison County case number 12-L-821.