A widow has asked the Florida appeals court to revive a $3.6 million asbestos award in the verdict against Carnival Cruise Line, stating that she had provided sufficient proof that her husband’s asbestos exposure while employed as a crew member caused his cancer.

The attorney representing the widow in the asbestos award lawsuit against Carnival told the appellate panel in Miami that doctors had found its best dose in the lungs of Benedetto C., who worked as a shipboard electrician.

A witness in the case also supported the claims saying that Benedetto could have suffered from asbestos exposure in the course of his work.

The attorney further argued that the evidence presented during the trial sufficiently met the lowered burden of proof, referred to as “featherweight” evidence, based on the Jones Act governing claims brought forth by maritime workers.

The attorney said the judge in the case initially agreed, but then changed course in the ultimate outcome of the case.

“We know asbestos was cut quite often in the areas where [Benedetto] worked,” the attorney stated. “He worked in those areas and he had asbestos in his lungs. That should constitute a featherweight.”

The attorneys representing Carnival stated that the plaintiff did not meet even the lenient burden of proof. They stated that the amount of asbestos found in Benedetto’s lungs was not very much at all and was not enough to cause asbestosis.

The attorneys for Carnival also stated that the witness did not know where Benedetto actually worked or what his job responsibilities entailed and could only say that his exposure was a possibility.

“That was the whole problem with this case,” one of the Carnival attorneys said. “Everything was pure speculation and pure guesswork.”

Benedetto worked as a shipboard electrician on various cruise ships for 15 years. In March 2001, he was diagnosed with stage 5 squamous cell carcinoma in his lungs.

At the trial, a former chief engineer of Carnival testified that he believed, based on his nautical school education, that the cruise ships contained asbestos, as it was the most common material used for insulation in engine rooms and machine spaces where Benedetto spent most of his work hours.

Initially, the widow of Benedetto’s sought over $10 million as an asbestos award in her lawsuit.

Following a nine day trial that concluded in December 2014, the widow was awarded $10 million for pain and suffering, and an additional hundred $92,000 for damages and $128,000 in lost earnings.

Once the jurors discovered that Benedetto had smoked for many years, yet quit 20 years before his diagnosis, they found him responsible for 65% of his own death, which reduced the asbestos award in the lawsuits to $3.6 million.

Just two months after the initial verdict, Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola granted a motion by Carnival for a directed verdict, saying that allowing the case to proceed to a jury trial was in error, which brought the asbestos award into question.

“I just think there was one problem with the plaintiff’s case, and that is proof of exposure,” stated Judge Scola. “I think there is evidence that he could have been and might have been… But there is a failure to fill in an important logical step here. Proof of exposure was not sufficient.”

Although Judge Scola set aside the verdict, she denied the motion made by Carnival to reduce the award. The judge said that if the appellate court upholds the verdict, the asbestos award of $3.6 million as set by the jury should stand.

The Carnival Cruise Line Asbestos Lawsuit is Case No. 3D15-356, in the Third District Court of Appeal of Florida.