A new trial has been ordered in the case of a former sandblaster who was awarded $7.6 million by a Mississippi jury after contracting silicosis.

In a decision issued July 19, the Mississippi Supreme Court said the trial judge erred in an instruction to jurors.  The Court said the judge declined to let the defendant, Mississippi Valley Silica Co., argue to the jury that Robert Eastman’s employer bore more blame because it failed to protect Eastman from a product everyone knew could be dangerous, the Associated Press reported last week.