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Law360 (March 1, 2021, 9:59 PM EST) -- The wife of a mesothelioma patient told a jury Monday in a Zoom trial that she's afraid her husband won't live long enough to celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, shortly before she and her husband rested their case against a maker of asbestos-containing boiler liner material.
Fannie Little, the wife of retired boiler worker Cliff Little, told a Washington state trial jury that her husband's career replacing asbestos insulation in ship boilers has jeopardized the life they live together, after her husband was diagnosed with sarcomatoid mesothelioma.
"The time frame that you're given when you're [told] about sarcomatoid is not very long. So right now, we don't know what the time frame is. So that's always in the back of your mind," Fannie Little told the 16-member King County Superior Court jury on Zoom.
That casts a pall over a major milestone for their marriage this year, Little said, as well as the party they're planning to mark it. "We've been married 49 years. Lord willing, we'll make it to 50 in August of this year," Little said, with a celebration that will gather family, former coworkers, and church friends.
"Who knows, this might be the last gathering," she said.
One of the couple's adult daughters is an oncology nurse, making it painful to discuss her father's condition with her, Little also told the jury. She "knows too much" about what is happening to Cliff Little's body, Fannie Little said.
Defendant Pryor-Giggey Co. was a manufacturer of an asbestos-containing material known as "castable refractory" that lines boilers. It argues the material, named Lite-Wate, wasn't used on the ships Cliff Little worked on.
Pryor-Giggey's counsel did not cross-examine Fannie Little.
After the Littles rested Monday, the parties entered into an extended argument about the defense's planned first witness and a key document the witness wants to use that was not disclosed to the Littles until Sunday.
After about 30 minutes of argument, the jury was sent home for the day, and the parties continued arguing about the use of the late-disclosed document.
Judge Cindi Port ultimately ruled there would be no trial Tuesday so that the parties could deal with the new information and redepose the defense witness on it.
Pryor-Giggey's lawyers said that because the case was fast-tracked, the witness in question was not even deposed until Jan. 26, and motions in limine were being filed while discovery was still open.
The trial is scheduled to conclude by March 12, if not earlier, Judge Port told the jury Monday.
The Littles are represented by Matthew Bergman and Vanessa Oslund of Bergman Draper Oslund Udo.
Pryor-Giggey is represented by Brian Smith and Diane Babbitt of Foley & Mansfield PLLP.
The case is Little et al. v. Air & Liquid Systems Inc. et al., case number 20-2-11266-6 KNT, in the Superior Court of Washington for King County.
--Editing by Adam LoBelia.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
