Asbestos News Roundup: 12.19.13 – Major Ruling on Workplace Asbestos SOL

December 20th, 2013. By LucyC

A roundup of recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. An ongoing list of reported asbestos hot spots in the US from the Asbestos News Roundup archive appears on our asbestos map.

Statute of Limitations on Work Place Asbestos Disease No Longer Valid in Pennsylvania

Recently, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rendered a decision that could have widespread implications with respect to lawsuits filed by plaintiffs who allege to have contracted illnesses from the workplace, specifically asbestos disease.

In November, the high court ruled that occupational diseases that manifest outside of a 300-week period prescribed by the Workers’ Compensation Act do not preclude an employee from filing a civil action against his or her employer. The high court ruled that the Workers’ Compensation Act did not apply to latent occupational diseases, or diseases that could take years to develop and be diagnosed.

The justices’ decision reverses an August 2010 order of the state Superior Court, a lower-tier appellate bench, which in turn had reversed a June 2008 Allegheny County Common Pleas Court ruling. It was based on the justices’ review of two consolidated appeals, Tooey v. AK Steel Corp.and Landis v. A.W. Chesterton Co. In that review, the justices were tasked with addressing whether workers such as John Tooey and Spurgeon E. Landis could seek disability compensation benefits, or file lawsuits against their employers, since their respective mesothelioma diagnoses came well after 300 weeks of the date of their last asbestos exposure.

Tooey, the plaintiff in the first case, died less than a year after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. He had worked as an industrial salesman of asbestos products for Ferro Engineering, a division of Oglebay-Norton, from 1964 until 1982, according to court documents.

Landis, who was diagnosed with asbestos mesothelioma in 2007, was exposed to asbestos during his employment. He had worked for Alloy Rods, Inc., predecessor in interest to Chemetron Corp., and ESAB Group Inc., from 1946 until 1992.

In their decision, the justices specifically singled out mesothelioma, which has an average latency period of 30 to 50 years, saying that even mesothelioma that manifests at the lower end of that average would not occur for decades after an employee’s asbestos exposure. Therefore, the 300-week time window in which to bring a claim “operates as a de facto exclusion of coverage under the Act for essentially all mesothelioma claims,” the high court wrote.

“Indeed, the consequences of Employers’ proposed interpretation of the Act to prohibit an employee from filing an action at common law, despite the fact that the employee has no opportunity to seek redress under the Act, leaves the employee with no remedy against his or her employer, a consequence that clearly contravenes the Act’s intended purpose of benefiting the injured worker,” the ruling states. “It is inconceivable that the legislature, in enacting a statute specifically designed to benefit employees, intended to leave a certain class of employees who have suffered the most serious of work-related injuries without any redress under the Act or at common law.”

Plaintiffs’ attorneys welcome the Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court’s ruling as a positive and humanitarian legal development. (pennrecord.com)

Asbestos Settlements

New Orleans, LA: A Louisiana jury has awarded $6.4 million to a woman who was diagnosed with mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos manufactured and sold by Asbestos Corporation Ltd (ACL).

After a seven-day trial, a jury sitting in the Louisiana District Court, Parish of Orleans issued the $6,420,467 verdict in favor of New Orleans resident Mary Morvant. The jury found that Morvant was exposed to raw asbestos fiber supplied by ACL to a local plant owned by Johns-Manville Marrero.

According to the lawsuit, Morvant, a surgical nurse, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in October 2012 after being exposed to asbestos fibers through the course of her work. Morvant, a Louisiana resident, brought the asbestos lawsuit against the alleged manufacturers, suppliers, and installers of asbestos products to which she allegedly was exposed. In addition to the Asbestos Corporation Limited, a Canadian asbestos fiber miner and manufacturer, the other named defendants are five Louisiana residents: Eagle, Inc., McCarty Corporation, Taylor-Seidenbach, Reilly-Benton Company, Inc., and Burmaster Land & Development, LLC. (gpo.gov, + harrismartin.com)

Los Angeles, CA: An $8.6 million settlement has been awarded to the family of the recently deceased William Saller, who died from asbestos disease. According to the lawsuit, Saller allegedly contracted asbestos mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos dust generated by a thermal insulation product known as Mundet, made by defendant Crown, Cork & Seal (CCS), a manufacturer of thermal insulation products. Mundet was used extensively in the refinery where Mr. Saller worked. (harrismartin.com)

After just 17 days, the Los Angeles Superior Court jury reached their verdict December 13 awarding $5 million in economic and non-economic damages and $3.6 million in punitive damages to the family of Saller. The ruling comes after the Saller family lose the case in 2007, but the original verdict was overturned on appeal and sent back for retrial.

The sole defendant in the asbestos lawsuit, CCS, was found 30 percent responsible for the compensatory award and 100 percent responsible for the punitive award.

 

Tags: Asbestos, asbestos lawsuit, Asbestos Mesothelioma, asbestos risk, Asbestos Settlement

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