Record damage awarded to construction worker’s widow

Court orders Tishman Liquidating to pay $8M for exposing carpenter to asbestos

From left: the Olympic Tower and asbestos
From left: the Olympic Tower and asbestos

The widow of a construction worker who helped build the Olympic Tower in Midtown will receive $8 million for her husband’s exposure to asbestos, an appellate court ruled.

Dave Konstantin, a carpenter, inhaled dust working on two skyscrapers at 641 Fifth Avenue. A panel of judges upheld an earlier ruling that Tishman Liquidating Corp, the successor to the now defunct Tishman Realty — the contractor on both jobs — was liable in the case because the company knew as early as 1969 that asbestos was harmful.

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The court also upheld an $8 million award for the widow of a chief petty officer in the Navy. The sailor spent nearly three decades repairing shop boilers, where he was exposed to asbestos. Both men were stricken with mesothelioma cancer. [NYDN] — Claire Moses