Certain Damages Available Under General Maritime Law, Mass. Federal Judge Rules

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge has ruled that maritime law governs certain issues, including product identification and possible defenses, in an asbestos exposure action filed against Foster Wheeler Energy Corp., but that the plaintiff may seek loss of consortium, punitive, and survival damages.

In a Sept. 1 order, Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts noted the court recently ruled that such damages may be available under general maritime law.

While serving as a fireman and boiler tender on the USS Mullinnix naval ship between April 1966 and November 1968, Roland Cook …