Judgments were made in November in two lawsuits related to welding fumes, and the decisions were split.

In a jury trial in state court in Copiah County, Miss., the plaintiffs won a case that lawyers said was the first verdict awarded to the plaintiff in state court since 2003.

In that suit, welder Stanley McLemore said that he was injured by welding fumes because the defendants in the case — ESAB Group Inc. and The Lincoln Electric Co. — did not provide sufficient warning about the dangers associated with welding consumables.

The jury awarded McLemore about $1.8 million in a verdict that was delivered Nov. 20.

Meanwhile, on Nov. 26, a jury in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division rejected claims in a lawsuit in which the welder said that welding fumes led to his having symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Now, of the numerous lawsuits that have been filed related to the potential dangers of welding fumes, 4 have been decided in favor of the plaintiffs, and 21 were decided in favor of the defendants. In these suits, the plaintiffs have been the welders who have brought the lawsuits and the defendants have been the companies that produce welding consumables.

Lawyers for McLemore issued a statement that said the verdict in their case “sends a message that companies that knowingly sell and manufacture harmful products that impact the health and safety of workers will be held accountable.”

Lawyers who represented ESAB and Lincoln Electric said they intend to appeal that verdict.

The lawsuit that was decided in favor of the welding consumable manufacturers concerned an itinerant welder who claimed that he had manganese-induced Parkinsonism caused by occupational exposure to manganese in welding fumes.

Eddie Byers is a resident of Alabama and an itinerant welder who worked at more than 64 locations in several states from his home in Alabama.

Byers filed suit in 2004 against numerous defendants alleging that the symptoms of Parkinsonism that he has were caused by exposure to manganese in welding fumes. In late 2006, Byers amended his suit to allege claims only against Lincoln Electric, Hobart Brothers, ESAB, BOC a unit of Linde, TDY Industries Inc. and Union Carbide Corp.

After a three-week trial in federal court in Cleveland, the jury decided the case for the defendants.

John Beisner, the lawyer for several current and former welding consumable manufacturers, said he was happy with the verdict.

“This Cleveland jury has joined many other juries across the country that have already heard and rejected similar claims. The jury's finding that the defendants did not distribute a product with a marketing defect confirms what these companies have been saying all along. This is an industry that has always worked to ensure the safety of welders,” Beisner said in a prepared statement.

Beisner pointed out that there has been a sharp decline in the number of pending lawsuits related to welding fumes on the heels of the dismissals of more than 4,000 cases in the multidistrict litigation that saw more than 80 percent of the claims made tossed out.

“Welding consumable manufacturers have been unfairly targeted in these lawsuits and will continue to defend themselves vigorously against these baseless claims,” Beisner added.

“Despite a handful of isolated plaintiffs' verdicts, we believe the defendants are winning this litigation overall,” Beisner said.