Boren v. BOC Group

State: Illinois

Court: 5th District Appellate

Docket No: 5-06-0679 Rel

Case Date: 09/09/2008

Preview:N O T IC E Decision filed 09/09/08. The text of this dec ision m ay b e changed or corrected prior to the P e t i ti o n for filing of a or the

NO. 5-06-0679 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

Re hea ring

FIFTH DISTRICT _________________________________________________________________________ STEVEN A. BOREN, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Madison County. ) v. ) No. 01-L-786, consolidated with ) Nos. 00-L-886 & 01-L-289 THE BOC GROUP, INC., ESAB GROUP, INC., ) LINCOLN ELECTRIC COMPANY, PRAXAIR, ) INC., SANDVICK, INC., TDY INDUSTRIES, INC., ) UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION, and ) VIACOM, INC., ) Honorable ) Nicholas G. Byron, Defendants-Appellants. ) Judge, presiding. ________________________________________________________________________ PRESIDING JUSTICE STEWART delivered the opinion of the court: The defendants appeal an order of the circuit court of Madison County granting a new trial in this cause. We affirm. BACKGROUND The plaintiff, Steven A. Boren, filed a complaint against multiple defendants, alleging that his Parkinson's disease was the result of his exposure to welding fumes and that the defendants failed to adequately warn of the neurological risks from manganese in welding fumes. When the parties first attempted to select a jury in May of 2005, the circuit court declared a mistrial when the parties agreed that an impartial jury could not be selected from the prospective jurors. On October 24, 2005, the parties appeared in court for a pretrial hearing prior to a second attempt at jury selection. The circuit court emphasized its concern for a fair trial, and it warned the attorneys as follows: "The Court advised the entire [previous] panel that we had that the Plaintiff 1

disposition of the same.

had a right to be here and that the Defendants had a right to be here to defend themselves. And I might add that [Plaintiff's counsel] when asked by one of the potential jurors on the question of why is someone here from Cape Girardeau ***. Totally, totally improper, and he pursued it before I could make an effort to stop it. That will not happen this time. And you are not to pursue that line of inquiry. And then if there is someone here that wants to know about

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