The reason we fight for fair asbestos verdicts: “Asbestos was in everything”

“Ah, that... asbestos was in everything. In my age, at that time. One thing that I think, what I can really remember is our first home. We... finished the basement into a family room, and we did the work ourselves....” – Mary W. (diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma from exposure in the 1940s and 1950s)

For so many whose lives now are devastated by mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases, compensation is the real difference between the ability to pay off hospital bills and future financial security for your family. Since 1986, Weitz & Luxenberg has consistently broken legal ground in securing these asbestos verdicts for both typical and unusual cases of exposure. Due to its flame retardent properties, asbestos was an optimal substance to be used in hundreds of ways from insulation to clothing to floor and ceiling tiles. Our asbestos attorneys are skilled at piecing together each of our clients’ stories of asbestos exposure. Whether from a boiler wrapped in asbestos or exposure from dental tape in dentistry school.

“Well, first, when my husband and I first got married, he worked in a floor store. And he would go in, to like the old bowling alleys, and he would sand the old asbestos tile, they would get the old up, and put the new tile down. And, so, he would come home and it would be all over him.”

Asbestos hurts families when an asbestos-related disease takes the life of a person has been exposed at work. Second-hand exposure endangers family members. Weitz & Luxenberg has been successful in obtaining verdicts and settlements in all situations.

Stephen Brown ensured his family's financial security with asbestos verdict

“...Ah, my dad repaired cars, his own cars, did the brakes, the clutches on his car. I remember as a child, going out in the garage and watching him. It was just… so many places, you don't know really which one, but... it could have been a little bit of everything.” – Mary W.

Stephen Brown was fifty years old when he was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2000. Mr. Brown sought compensation from 48 companies for his fatal exposure to asbestos during his career as a brake mechanic at a gas station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He joined the Coast Guard in 1974, following his years as a mechanic, and retired from the Guard in 1990. Hedid not live to see the outcome of his trial. A jury awarded his wife and children $53 million in 2002, to be paid by 36 of the 48 companies Mr. Brown sued.

The negligent companies that produced the asbestos in the brake pad lining exposed Mr. Brown to asbestos during his career as a brake mechanic. The judge and jury came to the conclusion those asbestos companies, including Honeywell which was responsible for the brake pad linings, owed compensation to Mr. Brown and his family for his ultimately fatal exposure. Weitz & Luxenberg was privileged to be able to represent him.

Many ways of asbestos exposure, one way to seek justice

“But I've been exposed to so much of it. ...the grade school that I went to, I went to a parochial school, and we didn't have a cafeteria, it was just in the basement. The boiler was down there, you know... we all brought our lunches, and we all ate in the basement. You know, it was an old school when I went. And it was full of asbestos.” – Mary W.

Going to work. Doing the laundry. Fixing the brakes on a car. Finishing the basement. Eating lunch. You would not expect these mundane tasks to expose you to a toxic substance linked to chronic diseases and fatal cancers, but before asbestos was classified by the U.S. Government as “a known human carcinogen” (http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/asbestos#r2), asbestos companies exposed many people to their toxic products all in the name of good business.

In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that “between 1940 and 1980, 27 million Americans had significant occupational exposure to asbestos.” (http://www.epa.gov/region4/air/asbestos/inform.htm)

Weitz & Luxenberg can attest to the diversity of exposure. Our lawyers secured a $64.65 million verdict for four clients in 1995—Mr. William Falloon, a pipe-coverer at New York construction sites from 1963 to 1975; Mr. Milton Karasik, a sheet metal worker at the Brooklyn Naby Yard from 1954 to 1965; Mr. Corindo DeBerardinis, a carpenter for over thirty years, who retired in 1975; and Mr. Frank Pankowitz, an engineman for the Coast Guard, each of whom was exposed to asbestos while working.

The list of occupations held by people who were exposed to asbestos goes on and on, as does the list of favorable verdicts and settlements for those who have been exposed and their families. In 2007, a jury awarded $37 million in damagesto the widow of boilermaker Edward Martin, and the daughter of steamfitter Robert Letteirein a case argued by Weitz & Luxenberg.

Like Martin, Letteire, Falloon, Karasik, DeBerardinis and Pankowitz, Mary'sfather and husband had occupational exposure to asbestos, working with asbestos floor tiles and asbestos-lined brake pads in cars. But herown repeated exposure to asbestos is not counted among the 27 million, because none of it took place "on the job." What would that number be, if all cases like hers were counted?

You might not have known the dangers, but asbestos companies did

“Get mad. Because they knew. Most of them [the asbestos companies] knew it caused cancer."

Mary W.

Investigative journalist Paul Brodeur reports in his book Outrageous Misconduct that in 1935, officials at asbestos companies Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan instructed the editor of Asbestos magazine to suppress any articles on asbestosis. (Paul Brodeur, Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial, Pantheon Books, New York NY, 1985, p.116).

Weitz & Luxenberg has proven, time and time again, that these companies knew about the dangers of asbestos, and the verdicts returned by the juries confirm it. The court ordered asbestos corporation Johns-Manville to pay $17.5 millionto our clients in 2001, as part of a large lawsuit with other firms and plaintiffs, in which Johns-Manville paid a total of $104 million for their negligence.

Officials of asbestos companies constructed various justifications to risk the lives of the workers who handled asbestos containing materials—in a 1966 letter, one asbestos official (employed by Bendix, now Honeywell) wrote to a colleague at Johns-Manville "if you have enjoyed a good life while working with asbestos products why not die from it." (http://www.ewg.org/sites/asbestos/documents/doc_BX-091266.php) We do not agree.

Neither does the U.S. Government, which banned most asbestos containing products: "flooring felt, rollboard, and corrugated, commercial, or specialty paper. In addition, the regulation continues to ban the use of asbestos in products that have not historically contained asbestos, otherwise referred to as "new uses" of asbestos." (http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/ban.html)

If you are looking for a favorable asbestos verdict

Weitz & Luxenberg won a historic 1991 settlement of $75 millionfor our plaintiffs, who had been exposed to asbestos during their years of work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Since then, we have recovered over 3 billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for our clients.

If you are looking to explore your legal options, call Weitz & Luxenberg today, or fill out a form for a free consultation.

Acknowledgments:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/asbestos#r2

http://www.ewg.org/sites/asbestos/documents/doc_BX-091266.php

http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/ban.html