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Asbestos Litigation

A 1973 asbestos litigation decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals found asbestos manufacturers strictly liable to their workers for their asbestos-related injuries. By the early 1980s, over 20,000 asbestos lawsuits had been filed alleging injuries from asbestos exposure. By the end of 2002, over 730,000 people had initiated litigation, typically against dozens of defendants, for asbestos-related personal injuries. Annual filings have risen sharply in recent years.

Following is a list of recent criminal and civil asbestos lawsuits involving injuries from exposure to asbestos. These injuries include malignant mesothelioma, a deadly cancer associated with asbestos exposure.

• In a September 2006 asbestos lawsuit, a jury ruled in favor of David Bakkie, a former plastics molder, in his claim against the former asbestos mining and manufacturing company Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). The jury in this asbestos litigation found that UCC was negligent in its failure to provide warnings about its defective open asbestos fiber product, RG-144. Mr. Bakkie, who worked with RG-144 while employed during the mid-1970s at American Polytherm, a Sacramento aerospace plastics molding company, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in September 2005. In its ruling, the jury awarded Mr. Bakkie $18.5 million.
  
  
• In a September 2006 asbestos lawsuit, 24 workers sued Illinois Central Railroad for asbestos exposure, following 50 employees who filed in spring 2006. The employees, almost all of whom are now retired, are seeking up to $750,000 each.
  
  
• A federal grand jury in another September 2006 asbestos lawsuit indicted a Roanoke man on five counts of violating the Clean Air Act. He is accused of improperly removing and dumping asbestos during renovation of a downtown building last year. In this asbestos litigation, John "Eddie" Callahan, the man named in the indictment, allegedly hired three homeless men to remove asbestos from the renovation site without proper training or equipment.
  
  
• In May 2006, Owens Corning, a manufacturer of fiberglass insulation products, reached a settlement agreement in an asbestos lawsuit. The asbestos litigation settlement dictated that they will pay $5.2 billion to asbestos victims and their families.
  
  
• In an August 2005 asbestos lawsuit, a Louisiana jury awarded $4.5 million to the family of a deceased paper mill worker who died of lung cancer after being exposed to asbestos on the job. A notable aspect of this asbestos litigation is that, although the state of Louisiana did not recognize asbestos as an occupational hazard prior to 1952, the jury found the mill owner liable for harm to the worker that might have developed prior to that time.
  
  
• In a February 2005 asbestos lawsuit, W.R. Grace & Company, along with seven of its executives, were indicted for conspiring to "knowingly release" hazardous asbestos fibers that placed the entire town of Libby, Montana, "in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury." Additional charges in this asbestos litigation included knowing endangerment under the Clean Air Act, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. According to the indictment, 1,200 residents-70% of whom were not employed at the mine-had suffered lung diseases and abnormalities from exposure to asbestos fibers released from W.R. Grace's mine Libby mine, which produced asbestos-contaminated vermiculite. More than twenty town residents had been diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma.