$8M Asbestos Mesothelioma Lawsuit Settlement Awarded to Handyman

Los Angeles, CA: A 68-year old man who worked as a painter and handyman from the early 1960s until his diagnosis of asbestos mesothelioma has been awarded $8,465,738 in settlement of his asbestos lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleged his exposure to asbestos resulted from working with asbestos-containing products manufactured and supplied by the defendants, Union Carbide and CalPortland. Specifically, the lawsuit claimed that the joint compound and the plastic cement the plaintiff worked with contained asbestos.

Recently diagnosed with pleural malignant asbestos mesothelioma, the plaintiff subsequently underwent an extrapleural pneumonectomy. He and his wife brought suit against the various defendants alleging that the defendants were negligent in failing to warn of the dangers of asbestos contained in their products or sold to others to place in their products.

At the conclusion of the 37-day trial the jury returned its verdict in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants. The jury determined that defendants CalPortland and Union Carbide were responsible.

Family of Deceased GM Worker Awarded $3M in Asbestos Lawsuit Settlement

Erie, PA: The family of a former employee at the GM Powertrain facility in the town of Tonawanda, who subsequently died of asbestos disease, has been awarded $3 million by the jury hearing the case.

Gerald Suttner, formerly of Tonawanda, worked at the GM facility repairing vales manufactured by Crane Co. The job involved removing asbestos gaskets, which created asbestos dust Suttner would have inhaled. He did this for 36 years,from 1964 to 1979, when he retired.

Diagnosed in October 2010, Mr. Suttner died just one year later, from pleural mesothelioma, a form of cancer that is caused by asbestos. He was 77.

During the trial, lawyers for the Suttner family called expert witnesses who testified that there is no such thing as safeasbestos exposure and assured the jury that Suttner’s exposure is what led to his diagnosis. The dangers of asbestoshave been known since the early 1900s, and they lawyers made the case that Crane was aware of these dangers since the 1930s. “But the company continued to use asbestos well into the late 1980s without placing warnings on its products,” the law firm’s statement reads.

During his retirement, Suttner helped his wife, Joann, care for their disabled daughter, and served as a volunteer for the Shriners Hospital in Erie, PA, driving children to and from the hospital. 

Chevron to Pay $40M in Asbestos Class Action Lawsuit

Denver, CO: A$40 million settlement has been reached in an environmental class action brought by northern Colorado landowners against Chevron Corp. The lawsuit alleged asbestos contamination to the land.

The settlement, reached late in January, will see Chevron pay $32.5million in cash to the landowners in the class. It will also pay $7.5million for asbestos cleanup and testing.

Construction Worker Settles Asbestos Lawsuit for $7.5M

Los Angeles, CA: A construction worker who developed a highly aggressive cancer after his exposure to asbestos, has resolved his asbestos lawsuit against the defendant companies for $7.5 million prior to trial. The plaintiff brought suit against several of the companies that manufactured the materials. The defendants severally denied liability.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the plaintiff was a construction worker helping install underground water and sewer lines beneath the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. His job involved working with pipes made from a concrete-asbestoscompound, which he would cut with a gasoline-powered saw. The cutting generated an enormous amount of cement-asbestos dust, which left the plaintiff covered head to toe by the end of the day. The plaintiff was later diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer, also rare except where attributable to asbestos exposure.

The plaintiff filed suit in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, seeking damages on a defective product liability action. The plaintiff sought recovery of medical expenses, lost wages, and non-economic recovery. The defendants named were several companies who manufactured, sold or delivered the asbestos-containing pipes the plaintiff worked with, including Parex USA, Westburne Supply, John K. Bice Co., Los Angeles Rubber, Hajoca Corp., Hanson Permanente Cement, Keenan, Properties, J-M Manufacturing, Certainteed Corp., Ferguson Enterprises, Grinnell Corp., Amcord, Ameron International and Calportland.

Drywaller Awarded $26.6M in Asbestos Mesothelioma Lawsuit

Asbestos Mesothelioma Lawsuit For $26.6M


San Pedro, Cali: A particular asbestos mesothelioma verdict was achieve in March in the matter of Michael Sutherland, an ex drywaller clinically determined to have mesothelioma, the cancer brought on by asbestos. The L.A. Superior Court that heard the situation returned its judgement awarding $26 million to the victim.


Mike sayd that he performed as a drywaller in north San Diego County all the way back from 1967, while still was attending High School, throughout 1993. Mike worked at numerous residential and business jobsites throughout the construction “boom” which occurred in northern county during the 1970s, at that time the cancer-causing asbestos was found in many construction items including joint substance, fire-rated drywall, stucco, roofing and asbestos concrete pipe.



“With all of the trades taking care of top of each one other looking to finish one work and begin the next, it absolutely was always dusty”.

The Sutherlands’ lawsuit was submitted on June 20, 2012. Over 31 defendants were called in the case. Thesettlements were achieved with numerous defendants just before trial. Stucco company, Highland Stucco plus Lime Products, the sole left over defendant at the trial, argued that various other corporations and even Sutherland himself was responsible for his direct exposure to asbestos. Nevertheless the jury eventually assessed fault on Highland because of its role in disclosing Mr. Sutherland along with other members from the public to the dangerous products.

We were surprised to find out at trial exactly how much asbestos is at stucco,” Mr Sutherland stated, “even although I rarely have worked with all the stuff, I had been exposed to dirt when the plastic bags were dumped within large mixers so when we needed to scrape off parts of over-spray into the houses through windows plus doors.”

Mr Sutherland is grateful to the jury’s award as well as the effort of his genuine team, but might gladly trade all of it for the yield of his wellness. Prior to his particular diagnosis in June 2012, Mike loved his job and realy had no plans for retiring. He additionally continued to engage his life-long love for surfing.

Record $190M Awarded in Asbestos Lawsuit

A good asbestos verdict associated with $190 mil continues to be granted inside a lawsuit through 5 men who were subjected to asbestos-tainted companies products throughout their work opportunities as steamfitters, plumbers, plus building employees.


The -panel of recent You are able to Supreme Courtroom jurors discovered the two accused businesses experienced served negligently plus carelessly, after that rendering the verdict really worth an overall total associated with $190 mil, the biggest combined asbestos verdict within New York background. It really is believed that this $60 mil person quantities 2 from the men obtained would be the biggest person amounts granted inside a New York asbestos situation.

Daniel Blouin, a lawyer along with Weitz and Luxenberg, the particular company symbolizing the particular injured parties, said he great group undertaken the situation simply by informing the particular court a tale associated with 5 men just who worked honest work opportunities for many years simply to be paid back along with immense struggling. “We wanted to display the particular court the particular sadness our customers had been and so are going through, ” Blouin said. “And not only in physical form yet mentally. When you are subjected to asbestos plus create mesothelioma, you understand your own destiny. It is a good unbearably heavy problem. ”

Attorneys for the injured parties informed the particular court presently there was not a sum they could provide the men that might be unreasonable. The particular defendants in this case exposed a large number of women and men to some awfully toxic element. Chances are the businesses required the calculated danger within doing this. That will is not the financial debt which can be paid back, the particular lawyers said.

The particular court, coming back the verdict on four p. m. upon July twenty three, discovered each defendants – boiler businesses Cleaver Brooks plus Burnham – at fault within getting did not alert concerning the risks from the asbestos utilized in reference to their products. The particular verdict said each businesses experienced served along with careless overlook for the purpose of human lifetime.

All 5 from the injured parties had been trades-people from your tri-state region.

1 guy, through Toms River, NJ-NEW JERSEY, worked within the 50s plus sixties like a pipefitter within the Brooklyn Navy blue Yard. He was subjected to asbestos every day whilst fitted pipes into the salt-water distilling systems on-board plane carriers such as the USS Constellation plus USS Self-reliance.

Another, through Oyster These types of, NY, worked for almost 3 decades like a plumber, handling dozens of various kinds of items polluted along with asbestos.

A third, associated with Center Village, NY, seemed to be subjected to asbestos working like a plumber within Brooklyn, A queen, plus Rockland Company.

Another guy, through Howard Seaside, NY, was subjected to asbestos at work like a artist plus building employee. He was associated with the particular elimination plus demolition associated with central heating boiler that contains asbestos-laden components.

The final customer, through Kent, CN, furthermore worked with central heating boiler plus boiler components in the course of their work like a steamfitter.

All 5 men created mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure. 3 have passed away associated with problems associated with the condition.

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Settles for $2.1 Million for New Jersey Construction Worker

A 48-year-old New Jersey (NJ) union construction worker, who had his left lung removed after he was diagnosed with occupational mesothelioma cancer, received a $2.1 million settlement from a lawsuit he filed against the manufacturers of the asbestos construction products that eventually led to his death.

The New Jersey law office of Weitz & Luxenberg negotiated the settlement on behalf of the worker’s surviving family – his wife and two children. According to his lawyer: “Almost every construction product used before the 1980s contained asbestos. Back then, manufacturers deliberately omitted health care warnings, and employers rarely provided workers with equipment to protect them against the fatal diseases asbestos causes.”

The construction worker joined his local New Jersey pipefitters’ union as an apprentice in 1978, straight out of high school. Thirty years later he was dead from mesothelioma – the signature asbestos-related disease that claims the lives of hundreds of retired construction workers every year due to the unbridled use of toxic asbestos materials in the U.S. construction industry.

“The only time I started seeing safety masks on the job was about the late 80s,” the construction worker testified during his deposition. “That’s when they started offering me them, by saying, ‘It's dusty, you know. You’re hammering and drilling in the ceilings. It's coming down in your face, put the mask on.’ ”

He died exactly two weeks after the deposition, leaving behind a wife and two sons, aged 8 and 10.

Asbestos is no longer mined in the United States, but it is still imported and used in construction. Websites still sell asbestos-made products to industry contractors. With the enactment of federal regulations to protect workers against occupational asbestos exposure, new construction work is no longer as risky as it used to be.

But renovation work on old buildings still holds certain perils. That’s because large amounts of asbestos materials remain deeply embedded in the infrastructure of most buildings built before 1980. Toxic asbestos exposure occurs when workers disturb these materials inadvertently during renovation and demolition activities.

Most cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed 20 to 40 years after a job-related asbestos exposure. That’s why, despite today’s regulatory protections, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta predict the number of cases of mesothelioma will peak this year in the United States. Currently, some 3,000 cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the country every year.

Court Approves $43 Million Montana Asbestos Settlement

A Montana judge has approved a $43 million settlement for people sickened by exposure to asbestos from a mine, with a large part of that amount to be paid by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, court documents show.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed against Montana over asbestos exposure at a W.R. Grace mine. Former miners and their families had accused the state of failing to properly oversee the mine or warn workers of dangers there.

The mine in Libby, Montana, produced vermiculite, used for home insulation, potting soil conditioner and absorbent packing material.

More than 70 percent of the vermiculite used in the country over eight decades came fromLibby — and it was all contaminated by asbestos deposits in the same mine, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Miners originally sued W.R. Grace over their exposure to asbestos, but after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 the workers sued the state for failing to adequately protect them, according to court documents.

About 1,400 people will receive payouts from the settlement approved Sept. 8 by MontanaDistrict Court Judge Jeffrey M. Sherlock, ending a decade-long legal battle.

The deal ends numerous cases and claims against Montana “but expressly reserves their claims against all other responsible parties,” according to the agreement.

Many of the victims of asbestos exposure from the Libby mine are now over 65, and others have since died of asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis and cancers like mesothelioma, records show.



Because of the decades-long latency associated with asbestos-related diseases, people continue to be diagnosed decades after the mine closed, according to federal health officials.

Montana officials conducted inspections of the mine in the 1950s and later years, but despite knowing the risk to miners from asbestos dust, the state did not adequately warn workers of those dangers, the Montana Supreme Court found in 2004.

To cover the $43 million settlement, the state of Montana is using $26.8 million out of its self-insurance fund.

Montana’s insurers, National Indemnity, Berkshire’s reinsurance unit, and MontanaInsurance Guaranty Association will pay $16.1 million and $100,000 respectively, according to court documents.

Warren Buffet’s Berkshire has been active in taking over asbestos obligations from insurance companies in exchange for huge up-front premiums.

Payments for victims range from $500 to nearly $61,000 each, legal records show.

In a separate order on Sept. 8, Sherlock ordered one-third — or $14.3 million — to be paid out of the $43 million to attorneys for the victims, who worked on contingency.

The W.R. Grace mine in Libby closed in 1990.

In 2008, the company agreed to set up a trust fund to pay victims’ health claims.

Attorneys for the victims and for Montana did not respond to requests for comment.