Fairness of holding trial in Jefferson County debated
Jump to full article: Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger, 2001-03-17
Author: Beverly Petigrew Kraft / Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer
Intro: A Jefferson County courtroom may become the battleground June 18 . . .
Tobacco industry lawyers, who maintain the industry isn't responsible for asbestos injuries, say they can't get a fair trial in Jefferson County and have asked to move the trial elsewhere.
"Owens Corning had a bad experience down in Jefferson County and decided that is the place to be a plaintiff rather than a defendant," said Jackson lawyer Michael Ulmer, who represented R.J. Reynolds Tobacco at a Feb. 19 hearing in Jackson on tobacco's request to delay the proceedings.
Four months after former asbestos manufacturer Owens Corning suffered a blow in June 1998 from a $48 million jury verdict for 12 plaintiffs in Jefferson County, it allied with its former enemies, personal injury lawyers. It joined as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by smoker Ezell Thomas against the tobacco industry.
Personal injury claims for Thomas, who died in 1997, along with the claims of about 20 other sick or dead smokers added in 1998, are set to be tried separately. Six of the plaintiffs were from Jefferson County. . .
"I don't want to go to trial in Jefferson County," RJR attorney Kurt D. Weaver of Raleigh, N.C., said at the Feb. 19 hearing. "My client doesn't want to go to trial in Jefferson County. Why does Owens Corning want to be in Jefferson County?"
Weaver said Owens Corning had previously labeled Mississippi one of "seven deadly states" to avoid for trial.
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