Jury Awards $4.25 Million to Mill Worker Burned in 1963 Calcium Stearate Dust Explosion

A Cook County jury in 1994 awarded $4.25 million to Izzie Baylie, a former mill worker severely burned in a 1963 dust explosion, and $1.95 million to the estate of his brother Forest Bailey, who was hurt in the same blast. The defendant was Swift & Co., and the verdict came thirty-one years after the explosion.

On July 6, 1963, the brothers were working a Saturday shift at the A. Cramer Company in Oak Lawn, a custom mill that ground powders for other businesses. Swift sent Cramer calcium stearate, a soap-based material used in a waterproofing product, and Cramer milled it to a fine 325 mesh powder. That week the plant ran two mills at once for the first time to fill a rush order of 800 bags, and the grinding room filled with dust. Around mid-morning Izzie heard a boom and saw a ball of fire along the north wall. He was on fire, and a second explosion threw him out of the building. Press coverage of the case described both brothers as severely burned.

The brothers sued in 1964, alleging that Swift never warned Cramer that the powder could explode. A jury trial in 1971 ended in a directed verdict for Swift. In 1975 the Illinois Appellate Court reversed, holding that a jury should decide whether Swift owed a duty to warn. The case then sat for nearly two decades. Leonard M. Ring, the original lawyer, died in February 1994, and Thomas A. Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio took over and retried it that summer in the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, working with Philip H. Corboy, Michael G. Mahoney and David A. Novoselsky.

Several first-trial witnesses had died, so their earlier testimony was read to the jury. A hazards chemist testified for the plaintiffs that finely ground calcium stearate burns as fast as cornstarch dust, a recognized severe explosion hazard, and that Swift could have sent it to the Federal Bureau of Mines for testing in the 1950s. Swift's own interrogatory answers conceded it gave Cramer no warning about explosion or flash fire. Swift's witnesses had told Cramer the material was not flammable.

The jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded $4,250,000 to Izzie Baylie and $1,950,000 to Forest Bailey's estate, represented by his widow Amanda Bailey as special administrator. Forest had died in 1968. Swift's post-trial motion was denied in October 1994.

On September 9, 1996, the Appellate Court affirmed the judgment in full. It held that the long delay did not amount to laches because both sides had contributed to it, and that the evidence supported the verdict. Swift's petition for leave to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court was denied, and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported in 1997 that Swift had paid the plaintiffs.