CVN Ranks Elizabeth O’Neill, Ted Roberts Product Liability Win as One of 2021’s Most Impressive Defense Verdicts

COLUMBIA, SC—A South Carolina asbestos case tried by Womble Bond Dickinson Partners Elizabeth O’Neill and Ted Roberts made the Courtroom View Network (CVN) list of “Top 10 Most Impressive Defense Verdicts of 2021”. The case of Manning v. Chromalox Inc. was ranked #6 on the list of the year’s Most Impressive Defense Verdicts.

In addition to O’Neill and Roberts, the Womble Bond Dickinson team also included Todd Carroll as appellate counsel and Ashley Couch as the trial paralegal, with assistance from attorneys Bryant Caldwell and Scott Richmond.

CVN writes, “This case marked the first in-person asbestos trial in South Carolina in 2021, and one of the first in-person asbestos trials nationwide. Following a relatively brief four-day trial, jurors took just four hours to clear heating materials supplier Chromalox, Inc. of responsibility for the mesothelioma death of a South Carolina plumber. Rabon Manning died from mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining caused by asbestos exposure, in 2018. Manning’s son, Dennis, contends his father’s years of work with hot water heater gaskets that contained asbestos caused his father's death. However a jury in Columbia found in favor of Chromalox, which Manning had claimed was responsible for the hot water heater gaskets his father worked on.”

The case was tried in South Carolina’s Fifth Judicial Circuit Court. Retired South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal presided over the case.

Click here to read the full list at CVN.