Florida's First Asbestos Punitive Damages Verdict: Navy Veteran Wins $1.86 Million Against Johns-Manville

Edward Janssens served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1951. For nearly a decade, he worked aboard ships where Johns-Manville asbestos products were used extensively. No warnings were provided. No labels disclosed the risk. He had no reason to believe the dust he breathed every day was quietly scarring his lungs.

By 1978, Janssens had his diagnosis: asbestosis, a progressive and incurable disease caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. What compounded the injury was what came out at trial -- Johns-Manville had known about the dangers of asbestos exposure since at least the 1930s. The company had internal documentation establishing the health hazard and chose, repeatedly, not to warn the men who used its products.

Wayne Hogan, then at Brown, Terrell, Hogan, P.A. in Jacksonville, took the case to a jury in Duval County. The trial ran approximately a week and a half. Hogan presented evidence that Johns-Manville's failure to warn was not an oversight but a deliberate business decision -- one the company sustained for decades while workers accumulated the exposures that would eventually kill many of them.

The jury returned a verdict that reflected both dimensions of the harm. Edward Janssens received $707,600 in compensatory damages for his disease, his medical costs, and his diminished life. His wife, Patsy Janssens, received $400,000 for loss of consortium. On top of those figures, the jury imposed $750,000 in punitive damages against Johns-Manville for its reckless and wanton disregard of human safety.

The total award: $1,857,600.

Johns-Manville appealed, challenging both the decision to submit punitive damages to the jury and the size of all three awards. The Florida District Court of Appeal, First District, affirmed the verdict in full in November 1984, issuing a written opinion (Johns-Manville Sales Corp. v. Janssens, 463 So.2d 242, Fla. 1st DCA 1984) that upheld punitive damages in product liability cases where a manufacturer knowingly markets a dangerous product without adequate warning. No reduction was ordered.

The case was Florida's first asbestos punitive damages verdict. The appellate ruling it produced became precedent supporting multiple punitive awards in asbestos mass tort litigation statewide.