Wilson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., JOHNS-MANVILLE

• Citation: 810 F.2d 1358
• Decision Date: 26 February 1987
• Docket Number: No. 85-2727,JOHNS-MANVILLE,85-2727
• Parties: Clarence J. WILSON, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.SALES CORP., et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1358

810 F.2d 1358

7 Fed.R.Serv.3d 54

Clarence J. WILSON, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. JOHNS-MANVILLE SALES CORP., et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 85-2727.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Feb. 26, 1987.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied March 26, 1987.

Grant Kaiser, Robert E. Ballard, Houston, Tex., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Michael B. Schwartz, Butler, Binion, Rice, Cook & Knapp, Elizabeth Thompson, Houston, Tex., for Raymark Industries, Inc.

Richard L. Josephson, Baker & Botts, Arthur Stamm, Houston, Tex., for Armstrong World Industries, Eagle-Picher, Owens-Illinois, Inc. and Owens-Corning Fiberglas.

Weller, Wheelus & Green, David L. Tolin, Beaumont, Tex., for Fibreboard Corp.

Mehaffey, Weber, Keith & Gonsoulin, Gene M. Williams, Sandra F. Clark, Beaumont, Tex., for Standard Insulations, Inc.

Hallmark & Boswell, John H. Boswell, Houston, Tex., for Armstrong World Industries.

Gray & Keene, Richard C. Keene, San Antonio, Tex., for Forth-Eight Insulations, Inc.

Benckenstein, Norvell & Bernsen, Gail C. Jenkins, Beaumont, Tex., for Celotex Corp.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before GEE, POLITZ and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

JERRE S. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

This appeal is from a jury verdict favoring appellees, manufacturers of asbestos products, in a consolidated products liability action involving fifty claimants. Appellants, the claimants, challenge three discretionary rulings of the district court and ask that the case be reversed and remanded for a new trial. They claim that the district court erred in failing to sustain their challenge for cause to one of the prospective jurors, in allowing appellees to make improper and prejudicial comments during opening statement, and in excluding the testimony of one of their expert witnesses. Because we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion, we affirm the judgment.

I. Facts

Appellants comprise a group of fifty insulators, pipe fitters, and electricians allegedly suffering from asbestos-related injuries and illnesses. Appellees are or were manufacturers of asbestos-containing insulation products. Each appellant individually had brought suit against the manufacturers in the Galveston Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Their causes of action were consolidated by order of the district court on February 21, 1985.

The district court ordered separate trials on the issues of liability and damages pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 42(a). There first was to be a single trial to determine whether the manufacturers generally were liable to the claimants and whether punitive damages should be assessed. If the claimants prevailed on the issue of the manufacturers' liability, the court then would order separate trials to determine each individual's damages.

In the trial of the common issue of general liability, the jury found that while most of the products contained asbestos and were capable of producing sufficient dust to cause bodily injury, only Celotex

Corp., Pittsburgh-Corning Corp., and Ray-Mark Industries, Inc. could be liable to appellants because they failed to warn adequately of the dangers of their asbestos-containing products. The jury also determined that none of the manufacturers had acted carelessly or recklessly. No punitive damages were assessed. The district court decided that there was no just reason for delay and entered a final judgment in favor of Armstrong World Industries, Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc., Fibreboard Corp., Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp., Owens-Illinois, Inc., and Standard Insulations, Inc. Appellants then filed a timely notice of appeal from the take-nothing judgment involving the six appellees. The three remaining appellees did not seek an interlocutory appeal in this action, and their cases are still pending before the district court.

II. The Challenge for Cause

Appellants request us to reverse the decision below and remand for a new trial because the district court erred in refusing to sustain their challenge for cause to one of the veniremen, Dr. Wang. They contend that Dr. Wang's responses to questions posed by the district court clearly indicated the existence of actual prejudice and that, once bias was established, they automatically were entitled to have the district court excuse Dr. Wang. By denying their challenge for cause, the district court forced appellants to use one of their peremptory challenges to strike Dr. Wang from the jury panel. Appellants also claim that as a result of the necessity to use a peremptory challenge when grounds for a challenge for cause had been established, they were unable to remove another objectionable juror, John B. Leverton, from the panel. Thus, they assert prejudice by the error of the district court. We do not find appellants allegations to be justified.

At the commencement of voir dire, the district court asked all of the prospective jurors, "Do have [sic] you have any connection at all, have any particular interest in or know anything particularly about any of these corporations, each of which at one time, if not now, was in the business of manufacturing and marketing asbestos products?" Dr. Wang informed the court that he was a research chemist with Dow Chemical and that, while he had never worked with asbestos, he had read about it. He stated that "the carcinogenicity [of asbestos] was not known until several years ago."

Dr. Wang's comments indicated the existence of some potential area of bias on his part. Once the possibility of actual prejudice has emerged, appellants argue that "the court has the duty to develop the facts fully enough so that it can make an informed judgment on the question of 'actual' bias." United States v. Nell, 526 F.2d 1223, 1229 (5th Cir.1976). We find no error in the district court's exercise of discretion in carrying out this duty.

After Dr. Wang made known his familiarity with asbestos, the district court immediately asked him to approach the bench. In the presence of counsel, the court conferred with him about his ability to return a verdict based solely on the evidence. ¹

While Dr. Wang indicated that it would be difficult for him to be impartial, we cannot say that this evidence of bias is automatically disqualifying. The court apparently was satisfied by Dr. Wang's response and demeanor, and appellants made no objection.

After the court finished its own examination of the veniremen, all of the parties were allowed to examine the prospective jurors in order to explore fully any problems which they may have perceived. Appellants used this opportunity to question Dr. Wang extensively about the nature and scope of his employment at Dow Chemical, a company which they claimed was deeply involved in asbestos litigation. This concern served as the sole basis of appellants' challenge for cause to Dr. Wang. ² The issue of actual or potential personal bias on the part of Dr. Wang was never raised by appellants until this appeal.

Since the district court is in the best position to observe the juror and to make a first-hand evaluation of his ability to be fair, it is given broad discretion in determining a juror's impartiality. United States v. Salinas, 654 F.2d 319, 328 (5th Cir.1981). "The determination as to the impartiality of a juror ... will not be reversed absent an abuse of [the court's] discretion." United States v. Apodaca, 666 F.2d 89, 94 (5th Cir.1982). See also United States v. Brown, 644 F.2d 101, 104 (2d Cir.1981) ("In order for a trial judge's determination of a juror's impartiality to be set aside, there must be shown 'manifest' prejudice.").

We find nothing in this case requiring us to reverse the decision of the district court. There is no question that the district court correctly denied the challenge for cause on the basis of Dr. Wang's employment with Dow Chemical. See Lusich v. Bloomfield Steamship Co., 355 F.2d 770, 775 (5th Cir.1966) ("The mere fact alone that a member of the jury panel is in the same business as that of one of the litigants ... does not make him subject to challenge for cause."). The question of Dr. Wang's bias is somewhat ambiguous, and since counsel for appellants neither pursued the matter nor mentioned it in their challenge for cause, we do not find an abuse of discretion requiring a new trial.

Hopkins v. County of Laramie, Wyoming, 730 F.2d 603, 605 (10th Cir.1984) is closely analogous. It involved a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. At the conclusion of the voir dire, plaintiffs challenged three jurors for cause. The court denied the challenges, but asked plaintiffs if they had any further questions. They did not, and plaintiffs then exercised three peremptory challenges to excuse the jurors. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit found that since plaintiffs' counsel did not take advantage of the opportunity to convince the court of the propriety of the challenges for cause by asking further questions, it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to deny the challenges. To the same effect is United States v. Brown, 644 F.2d 101 (2d Cir.1981), a criminal case. The defendant in Brown claimed that the district court should have sustained a challenge for cause to a potential juror who worked for another branch of the bank the defendant allegedly had robbed. Instead, the juror had to be removed by the use of a peremptory challenge. Upon appeal, the court held that since defense counsel was given the opportunity at trial to prove the Since we find there was no abuse of discretion in the court's decision not to grant appellants' challenge of Dr. Wang for cause, we need not go into the question of whether prejudice resulting from an abuse of discretion has been shown.

contention that the prospective juror possessed actual bias and that opportunity was not pursued, the district court did not commit error by not finding such bias.

III. Opening...